LAS VEGAS (Court TV) — A new documentary promises to highlight new evidence in the case against Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son more than 20 years ago.
Chris Pixley, Mark Geragos and Ninette Toosbuy appear at CrimeCon 2026. (Court TV)
Mark Geragos, who represented Scott Peterson at his murder trial, joined retired LAPD detective Ninette Toosbuy and legal analyst Chris Pixley on stage at CrimeCon 2026 to talk about the new evidence he says should exonerate his former client.
“It’s amazing to me that almost 25 years later, there’s this kind of interest in the case,” Geragos said. “I don’t believe there’s anyone who, in real time, knew the evidence better than I did. I moved to Modesto, I then moved to San Mateo and I will tell you that I knew then and I know now and I’ve never for a moment wavered….Scott is innocent. Scott is not good for this crime. Scott doesn’t have the ability or the makeup to do this. … I know who is capable of committing a murder; he does not have that capability.”
Laci Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Christmas Eve 2002; her body and the body of her unborn child, named Conner, were found months later in April 2003.
“What if everything we know, or believe we know, about the Peterson case is incomplete? What if everything we know about the Peterson case is wrong?”
Geragos described representing Peterson as a massive challenge. Everybody “said it’s a no-win situation,” he said. “You’ve had a great career? Why would you do this? If you lose the case, you’re a loser. If you win the case, you’re a loser.” Geragos joked that a CNN poll after the trial showed that 66% of respondents thought he would still have a career. During the trial, he said, bombs were placed at his house by people who were mad that he was defending Peterson.
Geragos pointed to several issues at the trial, beginning with the jury voir dire. Because of the extensive pretrial publicity, 1,600 jurors were brought in for individual voir dire. One juror allegedly said on social media, “I’m going to lie my way onto the jury.” When confronted, she screamed, broke down and left.
FILE – Scott Peterson listens during a hearing to determine whether he gets a new trial for the 2002 murder of his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, and unborn son on Feb. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, Pool, File)
The jury was out for seven days deliberating. On the seventh day, the foreperson told the judge and the attorneys that he was unable to continue deliberating because another juror was threatening him. Over Geragos’ heated objections, the foreperson was dismissed and an alternate was brought in to deliberate. An hour and a half later, the new jury panel returned a guilty verdict.
Geragos also complained about the discovery process before the trial, saying he was handed additional discovery on the day of Scott Peterson’s conviction. On that day, he was told about taped jail conversations between two brothers who were accused of burglarizing the house across the street from the Petersons’ home. In those calls, one of the suspects said to “shut up” when they started talking about Laci Peterson. It wasn’t until after the trial that Geragos said he learned “the van was stolen, was found in the airport district of Modesto two days afterwards and had been lit on fire; and there was a mattress in the back of the van and the evidence was collected and tested and it was deep-sixed until decades later.”
It’s partially that potential DNA evidence that the Los Angeles Innocence Project (LAIP) has focused on in petitions to have Scott Peterson’s conviction and life sentence overturned. Prosecutors have opposed running DNA tests on the evidence, which Geragos has volunteered to pay for. “Wouldn’t you want to justify your investigation?” he asked. “What are you afraid of?”
The petitions for appeal have also focused on alleged “junk science” that Geragos said was put forward by the prosecution to prove the date of Laci Peterson and Conner’s death, as well as the location where the bodies were dumped. Referring to the state’s expert, Geragos said, “Dr. [Greggory] Devore was the most pompous bag of hot air you’ve ever seen on the witness stand.”
While Devore relied on ultrasound technology in his testimony that Laci Peterson was killed on Dec. 23, the LAIP argues that their experts, using new technology, place the date of death sometime between Dec. 28 and Jan. 3.
Geragos, Pixley and Toosbuy appear in a new A&E documentary premiering on July 16, “Scott Peterson: The New Evidence.”
