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It's a cornerstone of the American legal system and a virtual literary trope that people are presumed innocent until being proven guilty, but it sure was easy to assume the worst about fertilizer salesman Scott Peterson after his wife, Laci, and their unborn son, Conner, mysteriously disappeared in late 2002. After all, here was a man who told his mistress that his then-pregnant wife was already deceased; provided conflicting information about what he was doing the day she was reported missing; was spotting laughing at Laci's candlelight vigil; and sold off her car in the weeks before her lifeless body was discovered. It was hardly the behavior of a devoted family man, and the public's suspicions were confirmed when a jury found Peterson guilty of double homicide in November 2004. But the court of public opinion only goes so far amid the extensive layers of the legal system, and Peterson's appeals eventually earned a closer look as he waited out the years on death row, setting up the once-unthinkable possibility he would get another shot at freedom.