Judge rejects new trial for Scott Peterson in killing of wife, sides with juror in bias claims

Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo found juror Richelle Nice did not commit enough juror misconduct to require a new trial for Peterson.

REDWOOD CITY — Scott Peterson’s years-long quest to overturn his murder conviction and be granted a new trial was denied on Friday when a judge ruled that a juror who once claimed to fear for her unborn child in a domestic violence incident was not biased against him when she voted to convict Peterson in the notorious murders of his wife Laci, and unborn son.

The ruling means that Peterson will continue serving his life sentence at Mule Creek State Prison, itself a reprieve from the death penalty originally imposed by the jury but overturned last year by the state Supreme Court. Peterson, now 50, can appeal the decision.

In his claim, Peterson alleged that a female juror, Richelle Nice wanted to “punish him” and worked to conceal her history with domestic violence incidents, in order to sit on the jury.

Judge Anne-Christine Massullo in her ruling on Friday said that Nice had provided false answers on a 20-page questionnaire used for jury selection, but she said Nice had demonstrated that she was not biased against Peterson.

Her lack of proper disclosure was “not motivated by pre-existing or improper bias against Petitioner, but instead were the result of a combination of good faith misunderstanding of the questions and sloppiness in answering,” the judge said.

During a series of hearings before Judge Massullo, last summer, Nice said she was never a victim of domestic violence and if anything, she was the aggressor with an old boyfriend.

Peterson’s murder trial in 2004 was one of the most sensational in modern history, as millions of people across the country followed the case to understand why a handsome young man with a privileged childhood would kill his beautiful wife, pregnant with their son, Conner, the day before Christmas in 2002.

The case against Peterson strengthened when the bodies washed up separately along the Richmond shoreline, close to where he said he was fishing the day his pregnant wife disappeared.

The original trial moved from Modesto, where Peterson worked as a fertilizer salesman and Laci disappeared from her home, to Redwood City in an attempt to avoid pretrial publicity that could pollute a jury pool. Peterson was convicted of the murder in 2005.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. This story is developing, check back for updates.