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Scott Peterson's Sister-In-Law Says She Has Evidence That Could Exonerated Him, Believes Laci Was Killed By Burglars
Janey Peterson wants a jury to hear what she believes is evidence that will prove that a group of burglars killed Laci Peterson.
The sister-in-law of Scott Peterson, the notorious California man imprisoned for the nearly two-decade-old murder of his wife and their unborn child, now says she has evidence that could exonerate him.
“Scott did not get a fair trial,” Janey Peterson told CBS’s “48 Hours.”
Scott Peterson was convicted of the first-degree murder of Laci Peterson as well as second-degree murder of their unborn son, Conner, in 2004. She had vanished while eight months pregnant in 2002. Investigators claimed that Scott Peterson dumped human remains from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay, where they surfaced months later.
The aftermath of the discovery gave way to one of the most sensational and highly publicized trials of the decade. Public interest piqued after it was discovered that Scott Peterson had a mistress, Amber Frey. She was a single mother he began seeing shortly before Laci’s disappearance; Frey secretly recorded conversations with Scott Peterson, which she provided to the authorities.
While prosecutors claimed that Scott Peterson murdered his wife, his attorney argued that Laci Peterson was kidnapped by strangers. Janey Peterson told CBS that she feels there could be a connection between Laci’s death and a burglary that occurred across the street from the Peterson home.
"The wrong person's in prison," she told the show producers.
Janey Peterson theorizes that her sister-in-law caught a group of robbers mid-crime and that they then kidnapped and killed her. She has expressed frustration that only two of the five people related to that burglary were interviewed in connection with this case. She said in court last week that the evidence in her possession needs to be heard by a jury, KOVR-TV reports.
“There is no series of circumstances that fits the evidence where he could possibly have done it,” she told the court via video. “The justice system has failed here, and a lot of aspects have failed.”
Janey Peterson has become an amateur detective and has created a “war room” to prove Scott's innocence.
“This board behind me is events of the day he allegedly murdered his wife,” Janey Peterson told the court.
Jon Buehler, one of the original detectives on the case, told “48 Hours” that he disagrees with her speculation.
"There's nothing that's come out that's made me change my view that Scott got a fair trial and that Scott is the one who killed Laci," he said.
Buehler told KOVR-TV that “there are still people that believe the Earth is flat, too.”
Last year, the California Supreme Court overturned the 2005 death sentence for Scott Peterson. A new trial has been ordered for the penalty phase of the case, and a review is underway to determine if there was juror misconduct in his trial.
It’s unclear whether Scott Peterson will receive a new trial for the murder conviction. However, Frey’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said in an interview on CNN’s HLN last month that her client is ready to testify if necessary.
