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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Drew Peterson murder appeal to be heard by Illinois Supreme Court

In this  2009 file photo, former Bolingbrook, Ill., police sergeant Drew Peterson arrives at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., for his arraignment on charges of first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. (M. Spencer Green / Associated Press)
Tribune News Service

CHICAGO – Illinois’ highest court agreed Wednesday to hear an appeal in the case of Drew Peterson, who is asking the court to toss out his 2012 conviction in the notorious murder of his third wife.

“It means that maybe someone’s finally gonna listen,” said Steven Greenberg, an attorney for Peterson. “I don’t think they would say, ‘We’re gonna hear the case,’ if they didn’t think there was a problem. Clearly, they think there was some problem.”

Lawyers for the imprisoned former Bolingbrook police sergeant filed the lengthy appeal to the court in January. Peterson argues he was denied a fair trial due to the use of so-called hearsay statements, as well as other alleged critical errors, during court proceedings in Will County.

Peterson gained infamy after the disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, in October 2007. Afterward, authorities reopened the investigation into the death of Peterson’s third wife, Kathleen Savio, whose body was found in a dry bathtub more than three years earlier.

Her death initially was ruled accidental, but authorities later exhumed her body and found evidence that led to charges against Peterson.

The prosecution gleaned a conviction in 2012 without a confession, eyewitness or an exact time of death.

Instead, jurors later told the Chicago Tribune, damaging statements from Stacy Peterson’s pastor and a divorce attorney persuaded them to convict Peterson. Both men testified Stacy Peterson told them shortly before she vanished that she knew her husband killed Savio.

The Third District Appellate Court in Ottawa, in a unanimous Nov. 12 opinion, upheld the 38-year prison term and declared it found no trial errors and that evidence against Peterson was “sufficient” to show he killed Savio, 40, in 2004.

Justices also rejected claims that lead defense attorney Joel Brodsky had a conflict of interest due to media contracts he signed before the trial. The court ruled Brodsky’s counsel was not ineffective.

The state high court typically hears a small percentage of such petitions. For example, justices agreed to hear arguments in less than 5 percent of the nearly 1,500 petitions filed in fiscal 2014, according to state courts statistics.

Peterson, 62, was accused earlier this year of soliciting a hit man to kill Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, who prosecuted Peterson for Savio’s murder. That case is scheduled to go to trial early next year.