Scott Peterson: Does He Have a Chance for an Appeal? - East Idaho News
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Scott Peterson: Does He Have a Chance for an Appeal?

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Getty N 070712 PrisonShacklesOrangeSuit?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1341669085283Comstock/Thinkstock(SAN FRANCISCO) — Eight years after Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for murdering his wife and unborn son, his lawyers have filed an appeal alleging the convicted killer did not receive a fair trial, however experts believe Peterson’s appeal is a long shot.

“If you look at the case as a whole, I just don’t see any glaring holes…that are sufficient enough to cause a new trial,” said Brad Garrett, a former FBI profiler and ABC News analyst.

Peterson was convicted of suffocating his pregnant wife, Laci, on Christmas Eve in 2002 and dumping her body in the San Francisco Bay. In the 423-page document, Peterson’s lawyers claim the media frenzy surrounding his trial, along with a lack of direct evidence of the crime, didn’t allow him a fair trial.

Peterson’s 2004 trial was moved from Modesto, Calif., to San Mateo, however lawyers claim the 88-mile move wasn’t enough.

Peterson has denied responsibility from day one and insisted he had been on a fishing trip when his pregnant wife disappeared.

The former fertilizer salesman has spent the past eight years on death row at San Quentin, the largest death row prison for men in the United States, where he reportedly has his own cell and is allowed outside of it for five hour a day.

Despite the gloom of death row, Peterson doesn’t seem to have aged much and still receives fan letters and has even had a couple marriage proposals.

“I think one of the reasons Scott does well, it appears, in jail is that he has a personality that adapts. He’s sort of a classic anti-social personality, which means he basically doesn’t have a conscience,” Garrett said. “Everything is the future and is all about me.”

Although experts have said Peterson’s appeal is unlikely, if he does win, it would take years.

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