Scott Peterson has declined a new trial after appealing the murders of his wife Laci and their unborn son

MURDERER Scott Peterson has been denied a new trial after appealing his 2004 conviction for the murder of his wife and unborn son.

Peterson, 50, was sentenced to death in 2005 for the 2002 murders of his then-pregnant wife Laci and their unborn son Conner.

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The court’s decision came after his death sentence was overturned in 2020 citing jury misconduct and instead he was sentenced to life in prison without parole last December.

The California Supreme Court hired Supreme Court Justice Anne-Christine Massullo to determine whether Peterson would receive a fair trial.

Peterson’s defense team attempted to overturn her client’s guilty verdict, alleging that Jury No. 7 Richelle Nice was biased because she herself was involved in a domestic violence count.

His attorney, Cliff Gardner, argued that Nice lied to get on the jury that eventually convicted Peterson in 2004 and put him on death row.

The defense team learned that she had been beaten by a friend in 2001 while she was pregnant.

She did not disclose that she obtained a restraining order against a friend’s ex-partner during another pregnancy.

Nice claimed she was never a victim of a crime or involved in a lawsuit, ABC News reported.

Then, in 2017, during an interview with 20/20, she said her situation never crossed her mind when filling out her application.

Gardner also claims that Nice got on the jury because she wanted fame and was biased against Peterson.

“The court concludes that Juror #7’s responses were not motivated by any pre-existing or improper prejudice against the petitioner,” Tuesday’s decision said.

“But instead they were the result of a combination of good faith misunderstanding of the questions and sloppiness in answering them.”

Peterson wore a blue face mask, handcuffs and dark orange prison garb during Thursday’s hearing.

In court, Massullo Peterson refused “relief” on his appeal.

He has 120 days to present new evidence.

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PETERSON CONVINCED AGAIN

In December 2021, a court overturned Peterson’s death sentence and instead sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors said he took the body of his 27-year-old wife from their home in Modesto, California, on Christmas Eve 2002 and dumped it from his fishing boat into San Francisco Bay, where it was found four months later.

Peterson claimed he was fishing in the bay when his wife disappeared, KABC reported.

Prosecutors told jurors that Peterson either suffocated or strangled his wife, who was eight months pregnant, before wrapping her body in a blue tarp.

Peterson’s lawyers, who maintain his innocence, argued that she was murdered after encountering a burglary.

Laci’s half-sister, Amy Rocha, tore Peterson up just before he was retried.

She said: “It’s been more than 19 years and there isn’t a day that I don’t think of my sister.

“You took her away from me, I would have liked to have been Conner’s aunt too.

“Because of you, our holidays weren’t the same.

“Every Christmas Eve I think about the nightmare. It makes me sick to stand in front of you today.”

During Peterson’s first sentencing, Laci’s father, Dennis Rocha, yelled, “You’re going to burn in hell for this. Your life is over.”