Scott Peterson will not be able to use his murdered wife's insurance policy to pay for his death penalty appeal, according to a decision by a California appeals court Wednesday.

The Fifth District Court of Appeals in Fresno ruled that Peterson was not entitled to the $250,000 payout from a policy held by his pregnant wife, Laci, under a statute that prevents killers from collecting the insurance money of their victims.

The court upheld a ruling two years ago by a Superior Court judge in Modesto, where the couple lived at the time of her December 2002 murder.

The money will instead go to Laci Peterson's mother, Sharon Rocha, who is the administrator of her estate.

In 2004, a jury convicted Peterson, 35, of the murders of his 27-year-old wife and their unborn son. A judge sentenced him to death the following year. He is imprisoned in San Quentin State Prison.

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Peterson is appealing his conviction, and his lawyers cited that appeal in seeking the insurance money. A statute in the probate code prevents a beneficiary of a life insurance police from receiving "any benefit" if he "feloniously and intentionally kills" the policyholder.

Laci Peterson disappeared on Christmas Eve, 2002.

Lawyers for Peterson had argued that until his appeal was heard, a court could not conclude that he was responsible for the deaths.

In their 25-page decision, the three-judge panel disagreed, saying that the conviction was proof enough to disburse the money. The justices noted that the defense had presented no evidence of Peterson's innocence except a notice that an appeal had been filed.

"(W)e agree with the trial court that in the absence of any conflicting evidence, appellant's criminal conviction for the first degree murder of his wife was substantial and uncontradicted evidence that he feloniously and intentionally killed her," the justices wrote.