All language subtitles for Face.to.Face.with.Scott.Peterson.S01E03.PCOK.WEB.h264-EDITH.en[sdh]

[somber music]

- Most murder cases
are circumstantial.

You don't get a smoking gun.

- You take one of the things,
it's nothing.

Two or three, it's nothing.

But when you add them up,
it's pretty darn strong.

- I never imagined
that this thing

would still be percolating
20 years later.

[invigorating music]

- I have questions
about the case.

It's always bugged me.

- I know people
are really heavily

invested that Scott's guilty.

- There is no evidence
of cause of death.

There is no evidence
of a crime scene.

- Laci's already set the table
for Christmas brunch.

You're gonna travel 90 miles
away to test your boat?

I didn't buy it.

- There isn't any evidence
that Scott Peterson

engaged in any violence
involving his wife.

- If you open your
mind a little bit,

really consider
the investigation,

there are a lot of questions.

There have always been
a lot of questions.

- When you know that the jury

ultimately still
convicted him,

you have to ask yourself,
what's going on here?

- They gave us, in my opinion,
no realistic alternate theory.

- The information we were given
in that courtroom

only leads to the decision
we came up with,

which is he's guilty.

- The police can't
get it this wrong.

The DA can't get it
this wrong.

A jury can't get it
this wrong.

The appellate process
can't get it this wrong.

The media can't get it
this wrong.

- Is this the way criminal
justice works in America?

- Here I am two decades later,

still trying
to solve this crime.

- I'm still investigating.

I'm still looking at the
evidence, asking questions.

- It's gonna be a fight
for them to accept the truth.

- December 13, 2004.

People of State of California

versus Scott Peterson.

We, the jury,
fix the penalty at death.

[dramatic music]

- And in a case
that became something of

a national TV obsession,
a judge today

formally sentenced
Scott Peterson.

- In spite of all
the pain and passion

expressed in court today,
one person showed no emotion...

Scott Peterson.

- During my trial,
I was indignant.

I was so angry at the media,
because the reports

just weren't factual.

I strived not to show
any emotion in the courtroom

because I didn't wanna,
you know, see them break me.

* *

[indistinct chatter]

- When Scott was moved
to death row,

we made every effort
to get up there and visit him.

For the first eight years,

we had someone there
every week.

- Our family has really
been the glue for Scott

and for each other
through these...

these hard times.

And just fortunate
that that's the case.

- He would repeatedly say he...
he was living visit to visit.

It was his lifeline.

[cell door clangs]

[suspenseful music]

* *

[birds chirping]

- Sitting through
Scott's trial

and then spending years

combing over police reports,
reading appellate documents,

talking with lawyers,
our family had

kind of been tethered
to the legal community

for 17 years.

My kids were grown.

Ultimately, I made the
decision to go to law school.

I certainly never have
felt like I needed to become

a lawyer to help Scott.

But I think now
that I am a lawyer,

I certainly have
a much better understanding

of the case and the issues.

If Scott is granted
a new trial,

we'll be able to take more
steps in the investigation.

We'll be able to call people
to court to testify.

We have an incredible
support system,

an incredible team of people
who know this case

and help our family.

And without them,
we wouldn't be where we're at.

And without Mike Gudgell,

I don't know
that our investigation

would be where it's at.

[cheering]

- I thought that
the trial was going to be

the arbiter of the truth.

And I don't think
that's accurate.

Most of the journalists
covered the story

from beginning to end,
I think expected a hung jury.

I don't know anyone
who isn't terribly

conflicted by the verdict.

It was troubling
for those of us who really

knew the case intimately.

Scott was convicted,
but there was no how, where,

when, even why.

Everyone involved in the
case contributed in some way

to a sort of a conspiracy
of circumstances

that led to the verdict.

- Anybody who disagrees
with the verdict,

you have a right to disagree.

But if you weren't there,
you don't know.

- A lot of media coverage,

so I think the jury pool
was partly biased.

- Why did he leave his wife
alone, eight months pregnant,

on Christmas Eve
to go fishing by himself?

- There was a tremendous
pressure on the media

to report every day.

And as a consequence,
particularly the tabloid press

would report rumors.

- Was Scott Peterson
planning to hire hit men

to kill his wife, Laci?

- Every evening, I would sit
and watch one of the shows

and I'd wanna throw
my shoe at the TV.

Initially, I spent a year,
year and a half

covering a case
from beginning to end.

I went on to do other things,
including covering the wars

in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it always bothered me.

[unsettling music]

I don't really even
think the case was solved.

So when I got back
from covering the two wars,

I devoted as much time as I
could to digging more into

what might have happened
to Laci.

This is 2015.

The first thing
I had to do was get

the 50,000 pages of documents
and police reports.

And then I had to go
through those documents

and find what questions
or clues

were buried in those pages.

There was dozens of
different tips that came in,

and I spent years
looking into those.

But it finally came down

to the burglary
across the street.

- We have two people
in custody.

We do not believe that,
at this time,

that there's any connection
with the missing of Laci.

[ominous music]

- The police characterized
the Medina burglary

as kind of a meth addict, and
it was a crime of opportunity.

The Airport District
was sort of a high crime area

not far
from Laci and Scott's house.

And there was a larger effort

to burglarize houses
in that neighborhood.

I would call it
a criminal network.

I suspect that more
people were involved

in the burglary than
Steven Todd and Glenn Pearce.

This is just a working theory.

I haven't been able
to prove it yet.

And that comes to the
question of smoking gun.

But I think it's
much more complicated

than what the police believe.

- Steven Todd and Glenn Pearce
admitted their involvement

with the Medina burglary,
telling the police

that the burglary happened
on December 27th.

When the police pointed out
to them that it couldn't have

happened on the 27th because
the Medinas were already home,

they changed their story
and said that the burglary

happened on the 26th.

It wasn't until much later
that people began to question

whether this burglary really
occurred on December 26.

We believe that Laci
encountered the Medina

burglary on December 24th.

At 11:40 a.m.,
Diane Jackson saw three men

that were dark-skinned,
not African American,

in front of the Medina home.

- So I think Steven Todd
shared information

about the Medina home

with people
in the Airport District.

It's their practice
to share targets like that.

It's possible that
three men in the van

were some of his friends
or accomplices.

- So what likely happened is,

other people showed up
to help.

The police have
never identified that van,

never identified the men
associated with the van.

And that van was parked
directly in front of the house

that was burglarized.

It's directly across the street
from Scott and Laci's home.

So this confrontation
with Laci could have involved

the people in the van,
not necessarily

Steven Todd and Glenn Pearce.

- Steven Todd confessed almost
immediately to the burglary.

And I think
that says something.

I think he was told, you're
gonna have to take the fall.

I mean, you know, there's
a confidential informant

that turned him in, so he was
gonna serve time regardless.

The burglary could have
occurred about the same time

Laci went for a walk.

It's possible that Laci
confronted the burglars

or saw the burglars,
or the burglars saw her

and were worried about whether
she would call the police.

- So if you didn't kill Laci,
who killed Laci?

[ominous music]

- We had a client
who was innocent

but an entire world
against him.

He's not capable of doing this.

And we truly believe that.

We also believe that...that the
evidence backed us up on it.

To have a verdict of guilty

and then the death penalty,

no words can describe the
disappointment, the sadness.

It was a huge shock.

I thought, despite the
hatred towards Scott,

that they would actually
listen to the evidence

and they would base their
decision on the evidence

and only on the evidence.

Because I thought,
there's no evidence here.

There's no forensic evidence,
there's nothing

to tie him to the murder.

Our client didn't do it.

Nothing has changed since.

In fact, at this point,
years later,

there's more
exonerating evidence

that have come to light.

- In my years
of investigating it,

I investigated a lot of leads

and looked
at all possibilities...

that Scott was involved
in a murder for hire,

Laci was abducted
for her unborn child.

Most of them
have been dead ends,

but a process of elimination
at this point.

And, you know,
there are a few things

that are left
that are promising.

And I think the most
important piece of information

is the van.

[tense music]

At the very beginning, police
were looking for a brown van.

And all the media was also
looking for a brown van.

- A brown van could back up

a defense theory
Laci was abducted.

- Numerous witnesses
reported seeing

a suspicious brown van in the
neighborhood that morning.

- I noticed three people across
the street on the Medinas' lawn

and they were right next
to a van.

- I always look around.

And I have never seen
a van like that before.

- And so you saw the van,
coincidentally,

at the same time you saw Laci?
Or...

- Yes. No, no, same time.

- There's some variation,
but there were three or four

witnesses who saw the same van
across from the Petersons',

next to the Medina home, on
the morning Laci disappeared.

And then I heard
about an orange van

that had burned
in the Airport District

the morning after
Laci disappeared.

Maybe that's our brown van?

- Police recently took
the van to this crime lab,

examined it, and concluded
that the van was not

in any way involved
in the disappearance

of Laci Peterson.

- I remember sort of, you know,
those internal instinctual

alarm bells going off
that there was something wrong

and that...this sort of feeling
stuck with me.

So that's 2004.

And then fast forward
over ten years.

[suspenseful music]

Not believing
everything I heard

either in the media
or the police,

I started following the leads.

I decided to look through all
the documents, 40,000 pages.

I started, on my own,
interviewing witnesses.

I went to interview
the owner of the van

where it was stolen,
a moving and rigging company.

And he told me that
the employees could take

some of the vehicles home
and he believed

it was kind of an inside job.

If it was an inside job,
and if employees were allowed

to take the van home
for the weekend or whatever,

they could have just
taken the van back

and no one would have
even known.

So I think very logical
that it was burned

to cover up a crime.

After that, I'm looking into

the criminal community
in Modesto,

and some of the names
I'm seeing

are associated with
that burnt van.

The last person to drive it

definitely had a criminal
record, including burglary.

And a family member
of the owner of the van

was associated,
a friend of Steven Todd.

Steven Todd's wife's sister
lived in a house

right next to where
the burnt van was found.

- The thing about
the Airport District,

it isn't that big of an area.

And to have a burned-out van
found near the relative

of one of the burglars
isn't anything, to me,

that would be
suspicious whatsoever.

Why now is this just coming up?

It seems interesting to me.

* *

- I wanna show you the van.

So these are the six color
pictures I was able to get.

And to my knowledge,
are the only pictures

that remain out of possibly
over a hundred that were shot.

I found the three-
or four-page report

from Bryan Spitulski,
the arson investigator.

So I decided
to give him a visit.

And he looked at me
and he said,

I've been waiting ten years
for someone

to come and ask questions
about this.

- My name is Bryan Spitulski.

I've been a fire investigator
for almost 30 years.

In 2002, I was
a fire investigator

for Modesto City
Fire Department.

December 25th, the fire
came in for a vehicle fire

in an alleyway.

As I did my walk around,
I noticed

there was a mattress
in the back of the van

that was mostly consumed
by the fire.

- And they put this round
gas can over the mattress,

I'm sure thinking that the gas
can would destroy the mattress.

But the metal gas can
actually protected this

foot-and-a-half circle
of mattress.

- It was a little bit
discolored,

but it wasn't burned at all.

It's kind of a grayish
off-white fabric

with rust-colored stains
in it.

It looked like blood to me.

And I cut away a piece of that
fabric so we could understand,

was this just a rust color
or was this truly blood?

When we cut it away
and we stuck it

into the container that
had the luminol in it,

it went blue.

There's human blood
on that item.

* *

[birds chirping]

[car horn honking]

- Between Christmas
and New Year's,

the news started to come out
about Laci missing.

When I heard that,
that's when I got on the phone

and called up my detective
and said, look,

now, you know,
we've got this van.

We've got a mattress
in the back of it.

It's similar in description
of what everybody's saying.

I think you need
to take a look at that.

[inquisitive music]

- The detectives came out.
The police chief came out.

It was a really high-profile
development in the case.

The first test at the scene,

right after
they found the van,

was a presumptive test.

It's a field test.

- And then the next day,
a sample would be

hand-delivered to the
Department of Justice

for a more in-depth analysis.

- And it was tested there,

and they couldn't
detect blood.

- So at that point,
it seemed like

the...the air left the van.

It was no longer something
that needed to be looked at.

Even though we had
the positive luminol test,

that was it.
It was done.

* *

It has been in my mind
and has kept me awake

and has bothered me at night.

Why didn't this get brought up?

There's blood
on a mattress in a van

that was burned about a mile
from where Laci disappeared.

That screams
"needs further investigation."

- They couldn't determine
whether it was human blood

or not, but there was
human DNA.

I contacted the defense
and said,

are you aware
of these photographs?

They weren't aware of it.

But they asked
for the photos themselves

and then they asked
for further testing.

It's possible that
they could get a sequencing

and find out whose DNA
is on that mattress.

- When you think about it,
it basically comes down

that there was a crime,
there's DNA.

We should probably find out
whose DNA it is.

Pretty simple.

[birds chirping]

[dog barking]

- Hello.
- Hi.

- Hi.
Good to see you again.

- Good to see you.

Good.

Ready to work.
- All right.

[suspenseful music]

- Well, I was thinking it
could just be a good idea

to kinda lay out big picture
of what we know

the evidence to be right now.

This is the evidence, starting
with some of the things

we've known for 20 years,
all the way up to new evidence

we've just obtained
in the last year

and how we worked our way
through this evidence

as kind of a family
and a team of people

trying to solve a crime.

We all know that Laci
went missing on December 24th.

The dog was found in the
neighborhood with a leash on.

Karen Servas had put
McKenzie back in the yard

no later than 10:18.

And she had closed the gate.

The neighbors
across the street,

they had left the morning
of December 24th.

They returned home
December 26th

to find their home
has been burglarized.

You have the neighbor,
Diane Jackson,

seeing a van and men
the morning of December 24th,

the day that Laci went missing.

So the evidence indicates
that the Medina burglary

started the morning
of December 24th.

The Medinas,
who lived across the street,

didn't leave until 10:30.

So there was a perception
that the Medina burglary

was unrelated
to what happened to Laci

because the Medinas
hadn't left yet.

- So many of the mistakes
have to do

with the Karen Servas timeline.

- You found the dog
in the street.

- Yes, I did.

- And put the dog
in the backyard.

That ended up being very
critical to the prosecution's

case because they needed
to establish a certain time.

- Scott Peterson,
based on triangulation

of cell phone records
and cell phone towers,

in his own neighborhood
at 10:08.

At 10:18, the neighbor
finds the dog

running free
with a muddy leash.

- That's a DA timeline.

That's not
the defense timeline.

She could have gone missing
at any hour that morning.

- The judge bought into
this Karen Servas timeline,

the idea that Laci's
already dead by 10:18.

So the judge said,
the burglars weren't there,

so they couldn't
have been involved.

- It meant the jury didn't hear
evidence about the burglary.

- Years later,
the defense discovers

this bit of potential evidence
from a mailman

by the name of Graybill.

And he claims that
he delivered mail

between 10:35 and 10:55,

and what he did notice
was that McKenzie,

the dog that always barked
every time he delivered mail,

wasn't barking,
and that the gate

at the Peterson home was open.

- And if the dog wasn't there
and Laci wasn't there,

that means she was
walking the dog.

And we know that several people

had seen
a pregnant woman walking.

- That was the missing piece.

Laci was still home
when Karen Servas

put the dog back in the yard.

If Laci is alive after 10:30,

Laci could have encountered
the Medina burglary.

- We know the timeline now
because of Russell Graybill.

We know more
about the burglary.

- We've spent a lot of time
trying to connect

this burglary, the mailman,
and Russell Graybill.

There's just so many tips
and so much information,

and the timeline of the morning
was so misunderstood.

These are the significant tips
that came in

to the Modesto Police
Department, a lot of which

are at issue in the filings.

There are more,
but these are the ones

that are most commonly
talked about.

As a family,
we believe the police

were putting due diligence
into following up

on the sightings of Laci.

[indistinct chatter]

They had some people
came in with tips.

Passed those on
to the police because

I wanted them to follow up,

and I thought they were
following up on them.

I found out later when
I started to read

the police discovery,
their reports,

which were given to us
before trial,

that they weren't
following up on anything.

- Just a couple of things
about the tip lines.

There's been now about
340 calls that's come in.

- There's been tips that
the burglars confronted Laci.

One was a former
Los Angeles reserve officer

who had seen someone being
sort of muscled into a van.

- He was so disturbed by it
that he called police.

[line trills]

His name was Tom Harshman.

- Hello?

- Hi. Mr. Harshman?

I'm doing research
for a documentary,

and I read about
your tip that you...

that you made
to the Modesto Police.

[phone ringing]

- Tom Harshman calls twice
on the 28th.

Then he's so upset
by what he saw,

he actually goes to the police

so that everyone knows
he saw a pregnant woman

being shoved into a van.

- I mean, there were
a lot of phantom sightings

from people and things.

But as far as that
being a specific one,

I never heard anything
like that.

- No detective was assigned.

In fact, they put more effort
into discrediting

the Laci sightings, rather than
go talk to the people

who actually said
they saw Laci that day.

- This is one thing
that does bother me.

If I'm living in Modesto
and Tom Harshman reports

that a pregnant lady
was physically abused

on the side of a road,
if it wasn't Laci, who was it?

- So any evidence that Laci
is alive after Scott leaves,

whether it's Laci
walking the dog

or Laci
encountering a burglary,

is evidence that
Scott is innocent.

- There are so many
instances where

there was evidence
that didn't fit

the detective's theory
that they ignored.

- Very late in Scott's trial,
a tip came in

talking about Laci
confronting the burglary.

- My name is Xavier Aponte.

I was a correctional officer

at the California
Rehabilitation Center in Norco.

In January 2003, one of
the correctional officers

responsible for monitoring
inmate calls

overheard a conversation.

There were rumors on
the street that Laci Peterson

had walked up and interrupted
a burglary down the street

from her house.

[phone dialing]

I contacted the Modesto PD's
tip hotline

because somebody might wanna
follow up on it.

I did not receive
any immediate calls back.

And probably about
a week or so later,

I made a second phone call
and reiterated

what I had left the first time.

- Modesto PD
and the prosecution,

they'd been sitting
on that information

and didn't bother
to share it with us.

Later, we asked
for the recording.

We never got the recording.

That recording does not exist
right now.

Supposedly, the detectives
looked everywhere.

Was this something
that was deep-sixed?

The bottom line is,
this was material,

exonerating evidence that
should have been turned over

and it wasn't turned over.

- The Lieutenant Aponte tip,
under further scrutiny,

as Detective Grogan
started looking into it,

his story changed slightly.

And then as Grogan
pressed him more,

he ended up recanting
this information

and saying that
it really wasn't true at all.

- Aponte has recanted
everything he said.

Who's the officer that
told you about it first?

He couldn't remember.

Where's your notes
in the log where

you log in all these tapes?

Couldn't find it.
Well, where's the tape?

Don't have it.

And that was the end of that.

It was just a big malarkey.

- At no time have I ever
recanted my statements.

What I did say is that
his conversation

seemed to be hearsay
from the talk on the street.

The statements that I made
were true and factual.

- Lieutenant Aponte
has called in a tip

connecting the burglars
to Laci.

You know you've got a duty

to turn over
exonerating evidence

that tend to show
someone's innocence.

- What else do we have?

- Right on the heels
of the Medina burglary,

this reward was offered,
I believe, on December 31st.

Well, on that same day,
a Croton watch was pawned.

And when Laci went missing,
she was wearing a Croton watch

that she had inherited
from her grandmother.

- Tell me about
the Croton watch.

- She inherited it,
you know, before Christmas,

not long before Christmas.

And it was kind of gaudy.

It had a bezel
with diamonds around it.

We joked about it.
We called it her rapper watch.

* *

- On December 31, 2002,
a lady came in and she sold us

a 14-karat-gold Croton Watch.

Everything we loan or buy
goes to a master computer.

I was contacted by
the Modesto Police Department.

They thought maybe it was
Laci Peterson's watch.

They just came in and said

they're here
to pick up the watch,

and they took the watch.

- Where is the watch?

And was that Laci's watch?

They never found it.

- I knew it was missing.

But the first time
I heard that the police

knew about it being pawned
was well after I was arrested.

The police have to
provide the defense

with discovery when
they ask for it,

any exculpatory information.

The police hadn't shared
this with us at all.

And now I know why,
because they covered it up.

- I think it was
a wild goose chase.

If it would have been
something of importance,

if it would have been major,

it would have been
in the trial.

- We can never prove
it was hers.

It never amounted to anything
other than speculation.

- It may have been Laci's

and it may not
have been Laci's.

But the bottom line,
they interviewed

the owner of the pawn shop.

It should have been
turned over to the defense.

Never turned over
to the defense.

- This really highlight
the failings

of the Modesto Police
investigation.

The sightings of Laci
were not followed up on.

The sightings of McKenzie
were not followed up on.

This burnt van certainly
was not followed up on.

This watch was not
followed up on.

- Now, do you think some things
were followed up on

by the Modesto Police,
but documents

or related evidence

wasn't turned over
to the defense?

- I strongly believe, based on
the sum total of the reports

and how things
are cross-referenced,

that there's a strong
possibility that

we're missing reports
on the Croton Watch.

It was confirmed
we were missing reports

on this burned van when Scott's
appellate attorney, in 2006,

requested from
the district attorney, hey,

can you send me
your whole file on this van?

Scott's defense attorney,
Mark Geragos,

initially had
a few files on this van,

but he did not have photos
of that bloodstained mattress.

- People want the answer
they believed in

to continue to be the answer.

You know,
people are who we all are.

We're...we're slow
to admit we're wrong.

[suspenseful music]

* *

- In California, death penalty
cases just take a long time.

You know, we had 12, 15 years
where nothing happened.

The bigger hope that
Scott would be exonerated

really drove what we did,

specifically
his death sentence.

We didn't really know
how long it would take.

We just kept investigating.

His attorneys kept working.

We just hung on
to every shred of hope,

every, what else can we do?

And...and let's do it.

- News today, convicted
killer Scott Peterson

is officially off death row.

He was resentenced
to life in prison

without the possibility
of parole.

- Judge Delucchi made an error
during jury selection.

He said, if you're
against the death penalty,

well, then you're excused.

When law in California says,
if you say,

I am against the death penalty,
the judge is supposed

to ask you questions about it.

Judge Delucchi didn't do that.

And the California Supreme
Court, for that reason,

overturned the sentence
for Scott Peterson.

- I felt a sense
of relief when Scott's

death sentence was overturned.

I know the first time that I
went to go visit him in person

at Mule Creek,
I'm sitting in this big room

with all these people
and waiting for Scott

to come through the door.

And he came through the door,

unescorted and unhandcuffed.

I was just looking at him
and I actually was wondering

what was wrong with his walk.

I was like,
why is he walking funny?

And I realized later that
I had not seen him walk

with his arms swinging
for 20 years.

- All rise.

- Once the death penalty
was off the table,

Scott Peterson, at that point,
lost a lot of resources

that were available to him.

- The problem for
Scott Peterson is that

now that he's off of death row,

he's lost state-sponsored
representation.

- There is a practical reality
for all but the...

the wealthiest people
in America that,

at some point...

and we're certainly there,
20 years post conviction...

families lose their ability
to afford the cost

of high-end attorneys.

- There was clearly a need
for an organization or a team

that was financially secure,

had access
to a lot more resources.

- I wasn't even
remotely qualified

to take over his case.

There's a number of problems
with Scott's conviction,

but one of the things
going on in his case

was that there needed
to be some DNA testing.

And Scott's attorney
had noticed that

the newly formed Los Angeles
Innocence Project

had a DNA grant.

- 2023, Scott Peterson's
appellate attorneys

reached out to the Los Angeles
Innocence Project

in the hopes that
they would take on the case.

- When the Innocence Project
takes a case,

it sends a message.

- When the Innocence Project
gets involved,

they only get involved if they
believe they can win a case.

This appears to be
the beginning stages.

- The Los Angeles
Innocence Project

has filed a motion
asking for, I believe,

17 items to be DNA tested.

A couple of those items
are associated

with the Medina burglary,
a burned van that

was found about a mile
from Laci's home

the day after she went missing.

And 11 of those items
were recovered either with

or near
Laci and Conner's bodies.

- We've got this other
narrative going on

that has been going on
since that week,

a burglary across the street
that happened

around the same time
that she was supposed

to go out for that walk.

- They wanna find out
if a van that was found

torched near the
Modesto Airport

is connected to the burglary.

Inside, investigators
discovered a mattress

with stains confirmed
to be blood.

The Innocence Project
wants to conduct

new DNA tests
on those samples.

Could it be
Laci Peterson's blood?

[inquisitive music]

- I think with the filing
of these motions,

the public has a much
better view of what happened

when Laci went missing.

A lot of this information
wasn't public

until these filings.

- I think there's
enough evidence

that it's probable that...

that someone else may have
committed the crime.

- The Peterson family
credits Mike Gudgell,

a journalist who used to work
for ABC News,

with tracking down
new evidence.

- I'd been doubted by my
friends and family for years.

Having it validated
was an important moment

and sort of the arc
of my commitment to this.

Ultimately is about injustice,

and not just for Scott...
for Laci too.

And the Los Angeles Innocence
Project efforts are important.

They have substance and they
need to be taken seriously.

- It is clear
that they believe

that the Medina burglary

had a connection to
Laci Peterson's disappearance.

They're not necessarily
stating that the individuals

who were convicted
of the burglary

are the ones who committed
the crime,

but that there's a larger web
of individuals

who may have been the ones
involved in her disappearance.

- It's a little overwhelming
to look at the evidence

in this case and realize
how solvable this crime is.

- To have an innocence
organization take his case,

I think, really speaks to the
fact that Scott is innocent.

- It would be impossible
for me to acknowledge

and thank everyone that is
responsible for bringing

this case to the successful
conclusion that it did.

But there are...

- Well, if there was any doubt,
I would be shouting it.

I would be making noise
about it.

But nothing has changed
in these 20 years since

that makes me have any doubt
that we got the right guy.

If you can imagine a family
that's pretty tore up

and they probably have
this nagging belief

that their daughter,
stepdaughter or what have you,

is dead...

Anybody that has a thought that
there's a claim of innocence

on Scott's part doesn't know
the case as well

as those of us
that worked it did.

- Peterson's new legal team
believes he may be innocent.

- This is how our
criminal justice system works,

to be sure that we have
the right person in custody.

- The LA Innocence Project
taking up this fight

at this time,
not totally unexpected.

- This isn't nothing new.

I mean, this has
been talked about.

This is...I don't
have a reaction.

I believe this is bullshit.

There is absolutely
no reasonable doubt.

None. He did it.
Jury got it right.

- If there was any doubt,
I would be shouting it.

I would be
making noise about it.

I have no doubt about
Scott's involvement

and the fact that
he was the killer in it,

because there's just too much

circumstantial evidence
to ignore.

From the beginning
of this investigation,

Scott was the focus
for Al Brocchini and I.

- There was blood
on the duvet.

It turned out to be his blood.

In the end of the bed,

it looked like
something laid there.

- So this could have
been a situation where

maybe he strangled
or smothered Laci

on the end of the bed there.

She scratched him
during the struggle

and then that blood
got on the comforter.

- Scott did run
to the neighbors,

but the first neighbor
he ran to, he told them,

I've been golfing all day.

Have you seen Laci?

Then he changed it to fishing.

- We knew he'd been fishing.

There was saltwater
in the boat.

But his fishing rod was more
of a freshwater fishing rod.

And the lure packages
hadn't even been opened.

- And so that made us
a little bit more suspicious

of what he was up to.

- The timeline suggests
that there were witnesses

that saw Laci on the morning
of the 24th

after Scott left
for his fishing trip.

- Anybody that said
they saw Laci

walking the dog
got interviewed.

- Eyewitness testimony
is very subjective.

It would be very easy
for a witness

to wanna be helpful,
to claim later

that they saw Laci,
when actually they didn't,

it was a mistaken
identity thing.

Or, more sinister,
people who wanted to get

involved in this because
it was high profile,

it was in the news,
and everything like that.

And we had a few things
like that that popped up.

But in addition to that,
as the case unfolded,

there was information
from her doctor

that she wasn't really in
any condition to make a walk.

- One of the working theories
is that Laci Peterson came out

of this house right here,
523 Covina,

and there was
a burglary in progress

right across the street.

- When it comes to the theory

of Laci being abducted
by the burglars,

people saw vans
in the neighborhood.

They saw women walking dogs
in the neighborhood.

But nobody saw Laci being
abducted, making noise,

screaming,
confronting somebody,

having an argument
in the street.

- Todd and Pearce,
they alibied out.

We went to, where were you
on Christmas?

Well, they were eating dinner
with Mom and Grandma.

It was investigated thoroughly.

- It's rare that a guy
who's doing burglaries

to source a narcotics habit
is gonna

turn into a violent offender
and abduct a girl

and keep her hostage.

And you have to remember
that a lot of property

was recovered
from the burglary,

and of all this property that
was inventoried and photoed

and examined, there was not
one piece of property there

that belonged to Laci.

That's why, to me,
the thought of the burglars

being responsible
for her disappearance

is pretty much fantasy.

- We had the...
the Berkeley receipt.

On that day,
we have the timestamp.

We know that
it's from that marina.

They just gave everyone, you
know, a way to implicate you.

- Half of America knew where
this man was on Christmas Eve.

If someone else
committed this crime,

where they would
deposit the bodies

is in the San Francisco Bay.

If you want to assure that
you aren't gonna be convicted

and Scott Peterson will be.

- If the burglars
were gonna frame Scott,

they're not gonna weight
the body down and hide it.

You're gonna want it
to come up.

Wouldn't they just put
her body right on the beach?

- They don't have a boat.

They don't have a truck
that can pull a boat.

They have no way
to get to the bay.

- I guess it's possible,
just like anything else is.

But it's also possible
that Jennifer Lopez

is gonna call me
after she leaves Ben Affleck

and wanna have a date.

- The Modesto Police
Department did

a phenomenal job in this case.

- I feel pretty confident
about the case

that was put together by our
team and especially the way

it was presented to the jury
by the prosecution.

And can they do it again
if they have to?

I believe so.

Now we've got this blood
that needs to be tested,

and my attitude on that is,
test that evidence.

And then you're
gonna be able to show

that it doesn't come back
to anything

to do with Laci or Scott.

If we had
the wrong guy in prison,

we would wanna know about it.

- Even 20 years
after the conviction,

you still have the detectives
trying to justify

or prove their case.

The Los Angeles
Innocence Project

only takes cases for defendants

who have a credible claim
of innocence.

The orange van may
be the smoking gun,

but no one can tell.

We all have to wait
for the DNA testing.

- Convicted murderer
Scott Peterson

is in front of a judge today.

- The next big hearing
is on May 29th.

And this is a crucial hearing
because the court's

gonna be deciding on
a number of DNA testings.

And we're hoping that the
court approves, if not all,

at least most of them.

- Today's hearing could
be the most crucial

in the attempt to try
and earn a new trial.

- If Laci Peterson's DNA
is on that mattress,

that's gonna exonerate
Scott Peterson.

[suspenseful music]

* *

- A judge ruling
is expected today.

- A huge decision
here for this judge

to try to determine
whether there can be

new DNA testing done
on these pieces of evidence.

- A no to DNA testing
could be a dagger

to the LAIP's argument,

but a yes to the testing
could be a huge step forward

in asking for a new trial.

- Convicted murderer
Scott Peterson

appeared virtually in a
Northern California courtroom

as a judge denied nearly
all DNA testing requests.

- The judge mostly rejected
Scott Peterson's request

to test about 15 pieces
of evidence, except for one.

Peterson will be allowed
to test a piece of duct tape

that was found on his wife's
body after it washed ashore.

- Most people, including me,

expected that the DNA testing
requests would be granted.

- Paula Mitchell, in her
argument before the court,

said, in all the years

that I've been asking
for DNA testing,

I've never had this kind
of resistance.

- That, in itself,
speaks volumes, if you ask me.

- The DNA on the duct tape on
the pants are gonna be tested.

- If someone else's DNA
is on duct tape

that's adhered to Laci's body,

that indicates someone else
is culpable.

That doesn't get
Scott a new trial.

That releases Scott.

- It's the initial stages.

This is not the end of it.
It's just the beginning.

And at least we've got
one win.

They still have
their discovery motion

that they can argue
that can bring

additional information
to light.

Even if you think
the person is a monster,

under our constitution,

he or she is entitled
to a fair trial,

something Scott Peterson
never got.

- Criminal defense
is inherently unfair,

simply because the state
has all the resources.

- I think most people
think that the courts

will get it right.

But the problem is, when the
courts don't get it right,

it is incredibly hard to fix.

- I don't think
you can honestly say,

in looking at this case, even
if you have questions about it,

that this jury got it wrong.

The jury basically mirrors

what most people
in this country believe

who have
looked into this case,

and that is that
Scott Peterson did it.

- There is no evidence
of manner of death.

There is no evidence
of cause of death.

There is no evidence
of a crime scene anywhere.

There isn't any evidence
that Scott Peterson

engaged in any violence
involving his wife.

When you know that the jury
ultimately learned all of that

and still convicted him,
you have to ask yourself,

what's going on here?

And that's where, I believe,

the media plays
a significant role.

- We've been following
what appears to be movement

in the Laci Peterson case.

- All of us were so saturated
with media attention

surrounding this case,
all virtually one-sided,

all against Scott Peterson,

that I believe it became
almost impossible

to make a rational decision.

- When ratings speak,

when people realize that

there's a voracious appetite
for a story,

they're going to just
rev it up.

And the more
the media revved it up,

the more obsession there was.

- A Fox News alert.

A major development
in the case of Scott Peterson.

- He was dubbed the Most
Hated Man in America,

convicted of murdering
his wife, Laci.

- For the first time
in many years,

we're hearing from
the family of Laci Peterson.

- This story was
a huge cottage industry.

"The National Enquirer"
never had it so good.

- The families of both
Laci and Scott Peterson

watching in court this week.

- People think that there's
some conspiracy as to

what we see
in the mainstream media.

Well, here's what we see.

We see what people want to see

because that's how
they make money.

- Friends and family of this
young woman, Laci Peterson.

- Careers were made on it.

Within months,
I was working at CNN

and had been
a national reporter since.

In Modesto, Ted Rowlands,
KTVU Channel 2 News.

- Nancy Grace
was a reoccurring guest.

Her career absolutely exploded.

A lot of lives were changed

because of the death
of Laci and Conner Peterson.

- A baby boy, umbilical cord
still attached.

- There was a lot of hatred.

There was a lot
of pretrial coverage

and a conviction in the media.

But otherwise,
as far as evidence,

at least I didn't see
any evidence.

- Twenty years later, you have
two very compelling stories,

circumstantial as they may be.

If you think
Scott Peterson is guilty,

yeah, there's a ton
of evidence on your side.

If you think Scott Peterson
is not guilty,

there's some compelling
evidence on your side.

The problem is,
there's no black and white,

here's why we think
he did it or didn't do it.

There's nothing concrete.

And that's what
the LA Innocence Project,

I guess, is after.

- Journalism is all about
finding the truth

and holding our public
servants accountable.

At some point, law enforcement
has to engage in this.

It has to open their minds
a little further.

- If they go to another trial,
I'm not gonna like it

because it's gonna disrupt
a lot of people's lives.

And the big thing
for me is what it does

to Sharon, Amy, Brent.

When they got the verdict,
they were probably

on the attitude that,
oh, this is all done

and we can resume our lives.

But no, it doesn't
work that way.

- People never come to terms
with something

like a murder in their family.

There's no such thing
as closure.

It's something that haunts you
and you live with

for the rest of your life.

- It's been 22 years
since Laci went missing.

So really, this tragedy is...

it's been part of our lives
for a very long time.

My kids grew up with it.

My nieces and nephews
grew up with it.

We've lived
with this injustice droning

in the background of life.

Our biggest hope
is that we not only

are able to free Scott,
but ultimately find out

what did happen
to Laci and Conner.

We need both.

And Laci deserves both.

- Her name is Laci Peterson,

and she has disappeared
without a trace.

- Are you in any way connected
to Laci's disappearance?

- I had nothing to do
with Laci's disappearance.

- Somebody has Laci.
- Authorities are baffled.

- A brown van could back up

a defense theory
Laci was abducted.

- $1,000 for someone that
leads us to the persons

responsible for the burglary.

- We were shocked to
find out that

he'd been having an affair.

- I'm only left to question
what else he may be hiding.

- A female adult body was
discovered late this morning

by a woman
walking the shoreline.

- Murder suspect
Scott Peterson

had $10,000 in cash
when he was arrested

near the Mexican border.

- A crowd of 250
taunted and heckled him,

calling him a murderer.

- Peterson has been
found guilty of first-

and second-degree murder.

[cheering]

- Whoo-hoo!
That's it! I'm happy!

- The judge in Scott
Peterson's murder trial

sentenced him,
calling him cruel,

uncaring, and heartless.

- Scott got what he deserved.

- Key questions
remain unanswered

and have left some wondering,
will we ever get to the truth?

[somber music]

* *

- Every moment is so real,
is so tactile and still there.

And the smells and the
lighting and the sound

of when I say goodbye to Laci,
I mean, my family was gone.

I drove away, expecting to
come back that afternoon

and have our wonderful
Christmas together

after we both had,
you know, fun mornings.

And no, they were gone.

And it's still
very, very present.

But there are certainly times
that I become a wreck.

Excuse me.

You know, I try not to be
too emotional

when I'm out here in
the day room of the prison.

* *