You know precisely nothing about their reasoning. Public opinion has no bearing. It was formed on the basis of police and media reports that may have led to the conviction of an innocent man. He’s already had the death sentence lifted because the jury was rigged.
In the court filings this week, the Los Angeles Innocence Project said it was seeking evidence from the 2004 trial that it was unable to find among trial files from Peterson’s former counsel.
“In the course of LAIP’s review and after some preliminary investigation, it became apparent to me that numerous items referred to throughout the police reports in Mr Peterson’s case were not included in the discovery that was provided to the defense at the time of trial,” Paula Mitchell, director of the Los Angeles Innocence Project, said in the court filing.
It appears that there were failures of disclosure, and quite possibly an incompetent defence team. You don’t need to have an opinion about this until they present their case.