Scott Peterson's sister, Anne Bird, believes "justice has been served" by having him taken off death row and resentenced to life in prison for the 2002 murders of pregnant wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son Conner.
Scott, who has maintained his innocence, had originally been sentenced to die by lethal injection in 2005. In 2020, the California Supreme Court reversed his death sentence due to problems with jury selection. On Wednesday, Dec. 8, a judge resentenced Scott, 49, to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for killing Laci and 15 years to life in prison for the murder of their unborn baby.
"While I do not agree with the death penalty, justice has been served and just punishment is in place and should stand," Bird, 56, said on a public Zoom call with powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred on Thursday, Dec. 9. "Scott should remain in prison for the rest of his life and there is no excuse for murder. I stand by my comments, both past and present. I hope that someday, all who are attached to this heartbreaking and horrific history can find some peace."
Anne was placed for adoption as an infant in 1965 and reconnected with her birth mother, also Scott's, in the '90s. She got to know her brother and Laci in the years before her murder. After his wife was reported missing, Anne let him stay at her house for a while as police searched for Laci, according to her 2005 book Blood Brother: 33 Reasons My Brother Scott Peterson Is Guilty.
"Life is precious and Laci's life was taken away and her unborn son was never even given the chance to experience the world," Bird said on the call. "I wish I could've seen what kind of mother Laci would have been. I believe that Scott is guilty of Laci and Conner's murder and that our justice system accurately convicted him. The mountain of evidence, Scott's behavior, his bizarre lies, point to Scott as the perpetrator of these heinous murders."
She continued, "The behavior that I witnessed from Scott after Laci disappeared was not that of a grieving husband or a father-to-be. It was that of a roving bachelor. A man not looking for caring about his missing pregnant wife, but a man who was more interested in our attractive babysitter and portraying himself as a single man. Seeing Scott in the courtroom yesterday mirrored what I had seen 17 years ago. Scott still appears to be vacant and emotionless, even with the mask on and it was hard to see the rest of his face, I still saw that."
While Scott attended the hearing, he was not allowed to speak, his attorney, Pat Harris told reporters outside the Redwood City, Calif., courthouse, Reuters reported.
"One of the things that really upsets him is this concept that he did not want to have a child," he said, according to the news wire. "And he wanted to talk a little bit about that."