Police responding to Michael Peterson‘s name that his spouse had fallen down stairs encountered a very grotesque scene after they arrived on the home.
Officers walked in on bloodstained flooring, stairs and partitions... and the bloody corpse of Kathleen Peterson. Michael was arrested, charged and convicted of homicide.
The case had so many twists it appeared far-fetched even by Hollywood requirements. Nevertheless, that hasn’t stopped Tinseltown giving it its personal remedy.
Sky mini-series The Staircase stars Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen as they play out the occasions of that evening, December 8, 2001, in Durham, North Carolina, in line with Mirror On-line.
So did Michael kill Kathleen? Was it an insurance coverage rip-off? An try and silence Kathleen over her discovery of his bisexuality? Was it an accident? Or, bizarrely, was the actual offender an intruding owl?
We sift the details and look at the proof with the assistance of Michael’s defence lawyer, David Rudolf, author of a gripping e-book on the good miscarriages of US justice.
The household
Kathleen was a extremely paid telecommunications govt whereas Vietnam vet Michael was a novelist. He was additionally concerned in native politics and wrote a newspaper column usually important of Durham’s officers and police.
The household residence was a lavish colonial-style mansion. Michael had two sons from his first marriage in addition to two daughters he adopted along with his ex-wife Patty. Kathleen had one daughter from her first marriage - Caitlin Atwater.
At first all 5 youngsters supported Michael in opposition to the accusations. However then Caitlin modified her thoughts after the invention of the male escort emails and after studying the post-mortem report.
The bisexuality revelations additionally turned Kathleen’s sister Candace Zamparini in opposition to him, saying she had no concept who Michael Peterson was any extra.
The Night time of...
After renting the movie American Sweethearts, Michael and Kathleen settled in for a night of film watching and wine ingesting.
Kathleen’s work colleague known as after 11pm to debate a presentation for the subsequent day.
In keeping with Michael, the couple went by means of their second bottle of wine by their pool. Kathleen then went inside and he stayed out for one more 45 minutes earlier than discovering his spouse on the foot of their stairs.
He could be heard in a cellphone recording desperately begging the emergency companies to “please come shortly”. He informed the operator: “My spouse had an accident. She fell down the steps. She remains to be respiratory.”
Arriving inside minutes, paramedics walked right into a massacre.
Michael claimed she will need to have fallen down the steps after ingesting an excessive amount of and taking Valium. However police instantly suspected foul play.
They searched the household pc and located electronic mail exchanges between Michael and a number of other male escorts. He was then arrested.
The proof
The post-mortem confirmed Kathleen died from blood loss. Her head wounds have been “in step with blows from a blunt instrument”.
However defence lawyer Rudolf says: “Kathleen didn't have the accidents somebody overwhelmed with a blunt object would have. She didn't have a fractured cranium or a mind bleed.”
Her blood-alcohol content material was just under the driving restrict. No homicide weapon was discovered.
The defence argued Kathleen slipped after an evening of ingesting, struck her head on the backside of the steps, got here to, slipped in her blood and hit her head once more.
The defence’s forensic professional stated the blood spatters have been in step with a fall. The prosection claimed they have been proof of a beating. There have been no indicators of an intruder.
A feather was discovered on the physique along with strands of her hair which had been pulled out. The Petersons’ neighbour prompt that Kathleen might have been attacked by a barred owl, a lot of which roost domestically.
Such an assault would account for the pinnacle cuts.
Rudolf remembers: “I first heard of this once I was making ready closing statements and it was too late to do something. It explains all of the proof much more persuasively than the prosecution’s idea.”
The motive
The couple had money owed of greater than $142,000 in 20 totally different accounts...and Kathleen had a $1.4million life insurance coverage coverage.
In addition to the cash motive, the police additionally imagine that on the evening she died Kathleen might have found emails Michael had been sending to male escorts.
It was a discovery, they declare, that led him to homicide her.
Defence lawyer Rudolf insists his consumer had no motive to homicide Kathleen.
He says: “The coverage was issued earlier than she even met Michael and named her first husband, Fred, because the beneficiary. And he or she had a number of $100,000 deposits in her deferred compensation account so there was no monetary pressure.”
He additionally believes that in at the moment’s extra liberal society, bisexuality wouldn't be the large subject it was 20 years in the past.
Rudolf says: “If the case went to trial at the moment I'm not even positive the prosecution would elevate his bisexuality as a motive.”
He provides: “Michael claims Kathleen knew of his bisexuality and accepted it.”
The trial and after
Peterson was discovered responsible of first-degree homicide and sentenced to life with out parole.
Rudolf says of the 2003 verdict: “I couldn't perceive how the jury couldn't have skilled affordable doubt.
“Once I examine the target details to the emotional details, it really isn't an in depth name. The emotional details carried the day right here.”
Michael had served eight years when a decide dominated that a prosecution witness gave deceptive proof and ordered a re-trial.
Michael was freed after coming into an Alford plea – which means he was sentenced to the time he had already served whereas not admitting guilt.
He returned to Durham the place he lives quietly in a two-bed residence. Now 78, he has written two books in regards to the trial with the proceeds going to charity.
Explaining why Michael took The Alford plea, Rudolf stated: “He was by no means responsible, he isn't admitting guilt. He doesn't really feel he received a good trial.”
However was Michael guilty all alongside? Greater than 20 years after Kathleen’s demise, the query mark stays.
The Staircase is on Sky and NOW TV. American Injustice by David Rudolf is in the stores.
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