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What Is the L.A. Innocence Project, and Why Is the Group Working with Scott Peterson?
The L.A.I.P. is now representing Scott Peterson, the convicted killer who said he had "nothing to do" with the 2002 murders of his wife and unborn son.
Scott Peterson, the man convicted in the 2002 double murder of his wife and their unborn child, is one of the more recent clients of the Los Angeles Innocence Project (L.A.I.P.), a group “wholly independent” of the Innocence Project, according to the latter organization.
Since January 2024, the L.A.I.P. has staunchly campaigned for the California man — now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole — in his bid for a new trial. The group asserts that Peterson’s 27-year-old wife, Laci Peterson, who was around eight months into her pregnancy at the time of her murder, was possibly abducted and killed after witnessing a Christmas Eve burglary near the Petersons’ Modesto, California home.
Scott Peterson, whose extramarital affair and finances were significant factors during the initial trial, was found guilty of the murders after Laci and their unborn son, Conner, washed ashore in the San Francisco Bay in April 2003. Still, he maintains his innocence.
“Mr. Peterson’s been waiting for 20 years for police reports and audio recordings and video recordings that should have been provided,” said L.A.I.P. Director Paula Mitchell, according to the Los Angeles Times. “We are eager to get our investigation underway.”
Scott Peterson’s case will be front and center in the three-part Peacock special, Face to Face with Scott Peterson, premiering Tuesday, August 20, 2024.
Before the series premiere, here is what to know about the L.A.-based organization.
What is the Los Angeles Innocence Project?
The Los Angeles Innocence Project is a non-profit group fighting to exonerate wrongfully convicted people.
It provides “pro bono investigatory services and legal representation to indigent individuals in Central and Southern California who were convicted of crimes they did not commit,” according to its website. It also aims to raise awareness “of the inherent problems within the judicial system” for local and state lawmakers.
The group comprises about 20 staff members, including attorneys and policy advisors, with the intention of freeing those it believes don’t belong behind bars. To achieve this, the L.A.I.P. emphasizes the need to “uncover and remedy” the misuse of scientific evidence presented in court (i.e., junk science) and to improve such standards.
Dialogue between scientists and stakeholders could also significantly improve injustices in the court, per its mission statement.
“L.A.I.P. believes in a world where the primary response to violations of the law is not a carceral one,” it stated. “We believe in a criminal legal system that recognizes the inherent dignity of all people. We believe in the possibility of a criminal legal system that is not infected by racial bias and does not criminalize poverty, mental illness, or drug addiction, and that seeks to reduce harm, reconcile individuals, address trauma, and rebuild those individuals, communities, and institutions that have been damaged by crime and our society’s response to it.”
It states science can “accomplish this vision,” which was its stance when filing post-conviction motions in January 2024 for new D.N.A. testing in the case against Scott Peterson. In May 2024, San Mateo County Judge Elizabeth M. Hill rejected most of its requests — namely from previously tested materials found in a burnt van related to the alleged burglary — but permitted additional forensics on a piece of duct tape found with Laci Peterson’s body.
The L.A.I.P is partnered with the California Forensic Science Institute, the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center, and California State University – Los Angeles.
How is the L.A.I.P. different from the Innocence Project?
The L.A.I.P. and the Innocence Project are separate organizations with the same mission to see the wrongfully convicted freed. Some key differences include its history and who it represents.
According to the L.A.I.P.’s LinkedIn profile, the group was founded in 2022 and focuses on wrongfully convicted persons in central and southern California.
The L.A.I.P. was launched when exoneree Andy Wilson, who spent 31 years in prison for the 1984 robbery and fatal stabbing of a 21-year-old man, donated $1 million to start the group after receiving compensation for his wrongful conviction, according to a 2022 news article by Cal State.
The group was notably behind the 2022 release of Maurice Hastings, who was wrongfully convicted in 1983 for the rape and murder of a woman found shot to death in the trunk of her own car.
The Innocence Project, created 30 years before the L.A.I.P. and headquartered in New York City, was founded by attorneys Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld. According to its website, the men met as public defenders at Bronx Legal Aid Society, and in 1992, it started the Innocence Project as a law clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
The Innocence Project's first success came that same year when helping free Glen Woodall, a West Virginian wrongfully convicted of rape. But its popularity skyrocketed in the mid-'90s when Scheck and Neufeld joined O.J. Simpson’s dream team murder defense to argue D.N.A. evidence presented by the prosecution, which helped in the accused wife killer’s ultimate acquittal.
The L.A.I.P. isn’t the only Innocence Project based in California. The San Diego-based California Western Innocence and Justice Clinic (formerly the California Innocence Project) and the Northern California Innocence Project are a couple of more law-based advocacy groups in the state independent of the New York-based organization.
What is the L.A.I.P.’s role in Scott Peterson’s case?
L.A.I.P. Director Mitchell, according to the Los Angeles Times, stated that Scott Peterson had “a claim of actual innocence that is supported by newly discovered evidence.” The group requested a mattress found in a burning van near the Peterson home shortly after Laci Peterson’s disappearance warranted new forensic examination.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, claimed testing in previous years yielded nothing to implicate anyone else for the crime, calling the L.A.I.P.’s requests little more than a “fishing expedition,” according to San Francisco Bay’s KRON-TV.
A November 2023 statement written by Scott Peterson was included in the petition, per the outlet:
“I believe this additional information will assist in determining what happened to my family and prove that I am innocent and had nothing to do with these horrible crimes that were committed against my wife and son,” Scott Peterson wrote. “In 2004, I was wrongfully convicted of murdering my wife, Laci, … and our unborn son, Conner.”
More about Scott Peterson’s claims of innocence will be featured in Face to Face with Scott Peterson, premiering Tuesday, August 20, 2024, exclusively on Peacock. The series will also air on Oxygen on Monday, November 25 at 8/7c.
