Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson’s Attorney Has 1 Regret From Both Trials That Was ‘Hard to Overcome’

Mark Geragos, the defense attorney best known for representing music icon Michael Jackson and convicted killer Scott Peterson, is speaking candidly about the one call he wishes he had made differently in both cases.

Taking the stage at CrimeCon 2026 in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 30, Geragos pointed to the same regret for both high-profile trials.

“There were no cameras in the courtroom. I’ve always said the worst thing I did in [Peterson’s] case, and I would say the same thing with Michael Jackson, for both of them, was that there were no cameras in the courtroom,” he said, as quoted by People on May 31.

“Because the public got their information through the ether, and when you don’t have a sequestered jury, that is hard to overcome,” Geragos continued. “People thought he had no emotion.”

Jackson was acquitted in 2005 on child molestation charges after a highly publicized trial that gripped the nation for months, as per CNN.

Peterson, 53, was found guilty in 2004 of killing his pregnant wife, Laci Peterson, at the couple’s Modesto, California, home, according to the Tampa Bay Times. He was initially sentenced to death, later commuted to life in prison without parole.

Laci was reported missing from her Modesto home on Tuesday, December 24, 2002. Her remains turned up in the San Francisco Bay in April 2003, and Peterson was arrested shortly after at a golf course.

The Los Angeles Innocence Project picked up his case in 2024, arguing police overlooked key leads and left DNA evidence untested, according to the Guardian. His latest appeal was denied in May, though the Innocence Project has pledged to fight on.

Geragos, who is set to appear in an A&E documentary about the Peterson case in July, still believes his former client is innocent. He told the crowd that Peterson sitting behind bars is what truly keeps him up at night.

“People often ask me, ‘How do you sleep at night doing what you do?'” said Geragos, who has also represented the Menendez brothers, Lyle and Eric Menendez, and Chris Brown.

“What does keep me up at night is when I believe that I’m defending an innocent client. That’s when I lose sleep,” he added.