A decade after an Illinois jury convicted former police officer Drew Peterson of killing his third wife, the judge who sentenced him to 38 years in prison is considering an appeal, the Associated Press reports. Will County Judge Edward Burmila is scheduled Monday to consider Peterson’s hand-printed motion after determining he had presented a “gist of a constitutional” claim. Peterson says his attorney, Joel Brodsky, was ineffective. He argues that Brodsky urged him not to testify and threatened to quit if he did. He also says Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow was an overzealous and unethical prosecutor who intimidated witnesses. Peterson also argues arguing that a movie starring Rob Lowe portrayed him to the jury in a “very negative light.”
Peterson was the first Illinois defendant to be tried after Glasgow helped push through a law dubbed “Drew’s Law.” It allowed two of Peterson's ex-wives to “speak from their graves” via people who testified that both women told them things that implicated Peterson in the killing. Courts already have rejected many of Peterson's arguments. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the use of hearsay testimony by the ex-wives did not violate his constitutional right to confront his accusers. Legal experts aid the argument that Glasgow intimidated witnesses is new and if evidence shows it happened — something Glasgow denies — it might help the former Bolingbrook police sergeant.