In 2004, 12 jurors — backed by a horde of blood-thirsty Americans, who had followed the case on television day and night — found Scott Peterson guilty of the murders of his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Connor. Twenty years later, the convicted murderer is back before the court of public opinion with two new docuseries, with starkly opposing points of view, aimed at relitigating the case and swaying streaming audiences. But the projects have also arrived as new efforts are being made to overturn one of the most scrutinized convictions of the century.
On Aug. 14, Netflix dropped “ American Murder: Laci Peterson ,” which unpacks the true-crime story that electrified the nation in the early aughts when an eight-months-pregnant Laci went missing on Christmas Eve 2002. Over the next five months, Americans debated whether her husband, Scott, had anything to do with her disappearance, until the bodies of Laci and her baby (who had been born subsequent to her death) washed up in the lake where Scott had gone boating on the day she vanished.
He was subsequently tried and convicted of the murders in 2004. Just in its title, the series shows where it places its emphasis, making no attempt to conceal its support of the convictions and sympathy for Laci and Connor, for whom it is dedicated in its final frame. Less than a week later, on Aug.
20, Peacock debuted “ Face to Face With Scott Peterson ,” a three-episode series touted as the first prison interview with Scott, who .