A&E to Air Controversial Four-Hour Scott Peterson Documentary Event This Summer

Scott Peterson, 52 and serving life without parole, is the subject of a new four-hour A&E documentary event titled Scott Peterson: The New Evidence, unveiled March 5, 2026 and slated to air across two nights this summer. The special is produced for A&E by Left/Right and is built around a Los Angeles Innocence Project push to reopen the 2002 killings of Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner.

A&E’s announcement frames the project around a recent filing, saying in promotional copy: "A recent bombshell petition introduced new evidence that could undermine the prosecution’s narrative of the murders of Laci and Conner Peterson more than twenty years after their tragic deaths." The network’s synopsis adds: "What happened on Christmas Eve 2002 remains fiercely debated - and this new filing argues new evidence proves it was impossible for Scott Peterson to have committed the crimes against his wife and unborn son."

Left/Right lists Banks Tarver, Ken Druckerman, Pete Ross and Maija Norris as Left/Right executive producers, with Elaine Frontain Bryant and Brad Abramson credited as executive producers for A&E. Veteran defense attorney and ABC News legal consultant Chris Pixley is credited as a consulting producer and will conduct a timeline examination for the series, focusing on the sequence of events that formed the prosecution’s circumstantial case.

The documentary’s through-line follows a Los Angeles Innocence Project legal filing that seeks a new trial in the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco. LAIP, which took the case in January 2024, filed a proposed habeas petition in April 2025 that, in the petition’s words, "presents new evidence that was not available at the time of trial, supports Petitioner’s claim of innocence, and shows he was wrongfully convicted." The filing further asserts that "This new evidence undermines the prosecution's entire circumstantial case against Petitioner, and shows that the jury relied on false evidence, including false scientific evidence, to convict him."

Items identified in LAIP’s petition and central to the A&E special include witness statements alleging Laci Peterson was seen alive after her disappearance, evidence of a burglary across the street from the Peterson home on the day she vanished, a handwriting analysis that concluded Laci "probably wrote" anchor‑related notes found in the house while Scott "probably did not," a requested round of DNA testing on items collected during the original investigation, and what the filing calls a "bombshell analysis" by a Harvard Medical School professor. LAIP lawyer Mitchell summarized the filing’s aim: "This new evidence shows that Laci knew about the boat; it shows the falsity of the prosecution’s narrative."

The underlying crime remains the same: Laci Peterson, 27 and eight months pregnant, disappeared Christmas Eve, December 24, 2002; the remains of Laci and her unborn son Conner washed up separately about four months later at a location roughly 90 miles from the Petersons’ Modesto home and within sight of where Scott Peterson took an impromptu Christmas Eve fishing trip. Scott Peterson was convicted after a six-month trial in 2004—first‑degree murder for Laci and second‑degree for Conner—sentenced to death in March 2005, had that sentence vacated in August 2020, and was resentenced to life without the possibility of parole in December 2021.

A&E’s special promises to "scrutinize both sides of the case, uncovering startling revelations and revisiting the most vexing questions about what really happened to Laci and Conner." The Los Angeles Innocence Project’s habeas filing remains pending before the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco; the series will air this summer while legal efforts to have that petition heard continue.