Two decades after Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for the murder of his pregnant wife in a high-profile trial, the Los Angeles Innocence Project said this week that it had taken up the case.

The development marks a significant breakthrough for the 51-year-old, who has long maintained his innocence and has claimed he received an unfair trial.

In court filings this week, which were first reported by ABC News, the project, which seeks to exonerate those who have been wrongfully convicted, argued that new evidence supports Peterson’s “claim of actual innocence” and “raises many questions into who abducted and killed Laci and Conner Peterson”.