After nearly two decades on death row at San Quentin State Prison, Scott Peterson was moved to a different facility, more than two years after his death sentence was overturned.
Last week, Peterson was transferred to Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, about an hour southeast of Sacramento, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where he will serve his sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
“Nothing unusual in this,” said Peterson’s attorney Cliff Gardner to CNN. “Because the California Supreme Court held that his death sentence was unconstitutional, and the state elected not to seek death again in light of the evidence of innocence put forward in our habeas petition, Scott is no longer a capital defendant. As such, he was taken off death row and transferred to another facility,” he explained.
Peterson was convicted in 2004 for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, and sentenced to death in 2005.
In August 2020, the California Supreme Court reversed his death sentence after finding that jurors were erroneously dismissed, partly because they expressed objections to the death penalty on a questionnaire.
Last December, Peterson was resentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
This summer, lawyers for Peterson argued that his conviction should be overturned and he should be given a new trial, citing juror misconduct. They say the juror, Richelle Nice, was biased and did not disclose relevant information on her juror questionnaire. The judge in the case will likely make a decision by mid-December, according to Gardner.
