Another long shot in the 20-year-old case of convicted murderer, Scott Peterson, facing a judge today in his latest attempt to get a new trial. This case cries out for further investigation, further forensic investigation, including DNA testing of physical items that may lead to a sculpatory evidence and/or leads to possible suspects. The now 51-year-old zooming in from Mule Creek State Prison, his head shaved, listening in as his legal team argued that 14 pieces of evidence from his case evidence should be submitted for DNA testing. We looked at the original investigation. We looked to see if anything was missed or overlooked or hidden. The prosecutor's arguing that the conviction should stand.

He has to show the evidence. He has to come forward with actual evidence, with actual facts, not speculation. The investigators from the Peterson case would tell you, Sure, let them retest it. Fine with us. The problem is it sets a potentially dangerous standard where any defendant, despite all their appeals being rejected, can make an argument that, Well, maybe there's something additional that should be tested.

Today, Peterson getting a small win. The judge ruling against new testing for 13 of the 14 items the defense requested, but allowing one piece of evidence to be tested. Peterson was convicted of the gruesome murder of his pregnant wife, Lacy, and unborn son, Connor, nearly two decades ago in a case that riveted the nation. Where the jury find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty. He's always denied his guilt, and earlier this year, secured a powerful new advocate, the Los Angeles Innocence Project. They argue that Peterson is actually innocent and that authorities zeroed in on the wrong man from the start.

The LA Innocence Project is arguing that this testing could show that he's actually innocent, that someone else did it, and that Scott Peterson was falsely accused. It's an enormous uphill battle.

The LA Innocence Project claims a burglary across the street from the Peterson home happened on the same day Lacy went missing and was not fully investigated, and this burnt-out van could hold a crucial clue.

Their allegation here is that some witnesses believed that Lacy Peterson interrupted that burglary, and then she was killed because of it by those who were involved in it.

In January, they submitted a 1,500-page motion detailing handling explosive claims, witness statements, an alleged confession from an eliminated suspect, and evidence that was not tested for DNA.

It's very concerning that they are so humanly opposing DNA testing in this case.

Peterson's lawyer is asking for evidence to be tested include bloody mattress samples from that burnt-out van found blocks from the Peterson home, a black tarp and several items found in a plastic target bag near the bodies of Lacy and their unborn son, Connor, a hammer and work glove found across across the street, and a piece of duct tape found on Lacy's pants with human DNA present. The State of California arguing in part that Peterson is on another baseless fishing expedition. The LA Innocence Projects claim that a piece of fabric found in a burnt-out van a mile away from the Peterson home might be connected to Lacy's murder.

That orange van had actually been seen where one of the witnesses saw Lacy, so there was a connection between the van and a possible Lacy siding. So somebody's blood is on a mattress in the back of a van that was burned deliberately.

Who? Former Modesto fire inspector, Brian Spitalsky, responded to that burnt-out van on Christmas morning.

There was a stain back there that presented as a rust-colored stain.

Spitalsky says that he and the Modesto Police Department tested the mattress, and it came up positive for human blood.

I don't know that I was tying the moment to Lacy. I was more tying the moment that it was human blood. It made it like this was much more important than just a burned vehicle that somebody was just wanting to get rid of or cover up.

But today, the judge ruled that the fabric from the van will not undergo additional testing. Advances in DNA testing have been successful in overturning verdicts in the past. As technology has improved and techniques and experience has improved, we're able to see more and more DNA. We're able to see DNA profiles that we couldn't detect before. Professor Ashley Hall is the Director of the Forensic Science Graduate program at UC Davis. As we moved on into the mid 2000s, kits were developed that could quantify male DNA by the Y chromosome. Later on into the 2010s, kits were developed that could quantify male and female DNA in the same reaction. She says although the evidence was collected and tested in 2003, it was retested in 2019. And at that time, improved DNA technology showed no female DNA was detected. The kits that were used in 2019 are the same kits that are used today. I would expect the result that we get in 2019 to be the same result we would get today, which would be no female DNA present, no Lacy present.

The problem that the Innocence Project has is that they don't have any evidence of actual innocence. They have theories, they have hopes, they have tests they want to do. But that's very different from actually coming to court and presenting evidence that fundamentally changes the perception of the case as a whole.

This is the third time that Peterson has been in court this year. In March, the Innocence Project made their first arguments on their new motion, claiming that there were witnesses who say they saw Lacy on the day she went missing, who were not properly interviewed. There are a number of other witnesses who we have been investigating. Lacy Peterson was 27 and eight and a half months pregnant when she went missing on Christmas Eve in 2002. Hi, could I help you? Yes.

My daughter is in this in since this morning. She went pregnant.

She took her dog for a walk in the park.

The dog came home with this police shot.

The day his wife went missing, Scott told friends he was going golfing, but later told authorities it was too cold. So he went fishing instead, heading out to San Francisco Bay, over 80 miles away from home.

Lacy Denise Peterson is eight months pregnant. She's considered a high-risk missing person under suspicious circumstances.

When a mistress surfaced a few weeks later, investigators zeroed in on Peterson as their lead suspect.

Scott told me he was not married. We did have a romantic relationship.

In April of 2003, the bodies of Lacy and their son, Connor, were found washed ashore, not far from where Peterson said he'd been fishing on Christmas Eve.

There is no question in our minds that the unidentified female is Lacy Peterson. The unidentified fetus is the biological child of Lacy and Scott Peterson. Lacy Peterson's husband, now in custody. Scott Peterson has been arrested.

At the time of his arrest, Peterson had died his naturally dark hair blonde and had thousands of dollars in cash, several phones, camping equipment, and changes of clothes, details that convinced those obsessed with the case that he had something to hide. Mark Garagos defended him at trial.

He had died his hair because he was still trying to work as a salesperson, but media was haunting him, and he thought that that would be one way to not draw attention to himself. The cash was because he didn't want people tracking where he was spending his money.

Peterson was charged with two counts of murder, and his five-month long trial became a media circus. We're breaking into programming to bring you the verdict in the Scott Peterson murder trial. A jury has just convicted him of murder. It took the jury nine days to find Peterson guilty of first-degree murder for Lacy and second-degree murder for Connor. We, the jury, in the above entitled cause, find the defendant, Scott Lee Peterson, guilty of the crime of murder of Lacy Denise Peterson. In the decades that Scott Peterson has been in prison, Lacy's disappearance and death have continued to fascinate the country, inspiring dozens of documentaries, books, podcasts, like Crime Weekly. He does have a good shot at proving that he didn't really get a fair trial. And TV movies like The Perfect Husband. No, they're questioning me like I'm a suspect, but that's what they do. Through it all, Peterson and his legal team continue to do all they could to secure a new trial.

It is very, very rare that someone whose case has worked its way through the appeals would get to reopen the case 20 years later to make arguments that they wish they'd made a trial.

But despite all the possible evidence the LA Innocence Project put forth, the only piece that will be tested is a 15.5-inch strip of duct tape found on Lacy Peterson's body.

This is the end of the road for Scott Peterson.