Scott Peterson will be re-sentenced in murder of pregnant wife, judge rules

A superior court judge ruled Wednesday that Scott Peterson will be re-sentenced next month for the death of his pregnant wife.

Peterson is expected to be re-sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Stanislaus County District Attorney's Office said.

Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo said she wants to sentence Peterson in November, before deciding whether he deserves a new trial over alleged juror misconduct.

The district attorney’s office previously said it would not seek a new death sentence against Peterson if granted granted a new trial after the penalty was thrown on last year by the state Supreme Court.

The California justices ruled the death sentence couldn’t stand because potential jurors were excluded after saying they disagreed with the death penalty. However, the high court upheld his 2004 conviction of first-degree murder for his wife and second-degree murder for his unborn son.

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Peterson, now 48, was convicted in San Mateo court after his trial was moved from Stanislaus County due to the massive pre-trial publicity that followed the Christmas Eve 2002 disappearance of 27-year-old Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant with their son Connor.

Investigators say Peterson took the bodies from their Modesto home and dumped them from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay, where they surfaced months later.

Peterson spent more than 15 years on Death Row.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.