The Staircase II: The Last Chance

This programme contains some strong language and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

INAUDIBLE

After a sensational five-month long trial,

Michael Peterson will soon learn the fate that awaits him.

The 12 members of the jury are now in their fifth day

of deliberations.

Will they find that Michael Peterson

used a blow poke to brutally murder his wife Kathleen?

Or will they instead believe the defence's theory, that she

fell down the stairs in the couple's Durham mansion?

A verdict is expected in the next few hours.

Has the jury reached a unanimous verdict

on the issue that was submitted to them?

- Yes. - All right. If you will give that sheet to the deputy, please.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you have returned the following verdict -

State of North Carolina versus Michael Iver Peterson.

"We, the twelve members of the jury,

"unanimously find the defendant to be guilty of first degree murder."

This, the 10th day of October, 2003,

signed by foreperson Christian Lion Jones.

Is this your verdict, so say you all?

Yes. - Juror number one, Mr Harrison, would you please stand.

Mr Harrison, your foreperson has returned

for your verdict that the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder.

Is this your verdict and do you still assent thereto?

- Yes. - Thank you. Juror number 12, Mr Hall.

Mr Hall, your foreperson has returned for your verdict that

the defendant is guilty of first-degree murder.

Is this your verdict and do you still assent thereto?

- Yes. - Thank you.

Ms Clerk, the defendant is imprisoned in the North Carolina Department of Corrections

for the remainder of his natural life without parole.

When the jury came in, it didn't just disappoint me.

It shook the foundations of my beliefs in the justice system...

..in human beings, in my own abilities...

..in, erm, my judgment...

..in my sense of reality.

I think that what happened today is that an innocent man was

found guilty based on speculation and conjecture and feelings

and that is so incredibly troubling to me.

I didn't do anything. I am innocent. I was wrongly convicted.

I didn't harm Kathleen and I didn't believe,

until the jury clerk read the sentence, that I would be convicted.

My immediate reaction was, "Let's end it."

And I told David that I didn't want an appeal.

I wanted to just end it right now. Forget it.

Enough was enough. We had all suffered enough.

That wonderful - awful - line from Romeo and Juliet,

"All are punished."

I don't know what we were being punished for.

I don't why my children had to suffer what they did.

Why they were being punished.

But I did feel that, "Let this end right now."

I have been here almost 3,000 days, over eight years.

When I first got here, I thought, "I'll be out in a couple of years."

We appealed and we kept appealing and every one of them failed.

And after eight years, I'm still here.

And I began to think I may die in here.

It's been almost ten years since Kathleen died.

But... Well, there's this wonderful photograph in my locker of her.

Every time I open it I see it. And, er...

it's of Kathleen in the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo.

And she's looking for Japanese, because there aren't any...

in downtown Tokyo, because it's not cherry blossom time.

And that's how it always was with her. We were always joking.

And we were always laughing.

So, even though it's been ten years, it's just like yesterday.

She's just as alive to me,

and I love her as much today as I did ten years ago.

- '911, what's your emergency?' - '1810 Cedar Street. Please!'

- 'What's wrong.' - 'My wife had an accident. She's still breathing.'

'What kind of accident?'

'She fell down the stairs. She's still breathing, please!'

- 'Is she conscious?' - 'What?' - 'Is she conscious?'

'No, she's not conscious.' Please!'

- 'How many stairs did she fall down?' - 'What?' - 'How many stairs?'

- 'Stairs!' - 'How many stairs? Calm down, sir. Calm down.'

'No... 15, 20, I don't know. Please!

'Get somebody here right away, please!'

'OK, somebody's dispatching the ambulance while I ask you questions.'

'It's at Forest Hills, OK? Please, please!'

Durham Police, this morning, are investigating

the death of a prominent city resident.

Officers called this morning to the home of Nortel executive

Kathleen Peterson, who was found dead in her Forest Hills

mansion after apparently falling down the stairs.

Kathleen Peterson's husband, Michael Peterson,

is a former columnist for the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper.

He also ran an unsuccessful mayoral bid in 1999 and just last month

failed in a bid for a seat on the Durham city council.

We believe that she was beaten, that she was stunned and was bleeding.

That she probably recovered

and struggled in the doorframe with Mike Peterson, to a degree.

And that he then had to bludgeon her on multiple

occasions after that.

And that she, basically, bled to death.

Michael Peterson's supporters can't believe

he's charged with the murder of his wife Kathleen.

Kathleen Peterson's biological daughter Caitlin Atwater

served as the main spokesperson for the Peterson family.

She stood shoulder to shoulder with Peterson's biological sons

and their sisters, adopted by Kathleen and Mike Peterson.

My mother and Mike had an absolutely loving relationship

and there is no way that either of them

would ever wish any sort of harm on the other one.

In my mind, if Mike finds Kathleen at the bottom of the stairs,

it's a reasonable assumption on his part that she fell down the stairs.

Peterson's attorney, David Rudolf, says the authorities seem to

have jumped to conclusions about Kathleen's death.

Kathleen and I were in here watching a movie.

I'd gone to Blockbusters and rented a video

and we were watching American Sweethearts.

And I think it was probably around about 11 o'clock that

the movie ended and we took our glasses and we came in here.

I think there was...

I'm not sure... we probably had another bottle...

I know we were drinking two bottles that night.

It was a nice night. I guess it was 55, 60 degrees.

Very nice night. And I'd gone outside.

We were just talking and finishing our drinks and then she said,

"I gotta go in because I've got the conference call in the morning."

I stayed right here. Don't think I said anything special to her,

certainly not thinking this was the last time I was going to see her.

And the last I saw her was when I was there

and she was just walking here.

And... that's it.

That was the last time I saw Kathleen alive.

No, she was alive when I found her, but barely.

'OK, is she awake now? Hello?'

'Hello?'

It's impossible for me to believe,

if that's the back of her head, that that could be caused from a

series of missteps, or fall, down 15 flights.

I mean 15 different stairs.

I can't see that happening.

The medical examiner doesn't believe that it was possible either.

This had to occur from multiple inflictions of blunt force trauma.

It just never occurred to Michael Peterson that people wouldn't

believe him when he said that she fell down the stairs.

That's really what this is all about.

He thought he'd get away with it.

I remember Dad actually explaining it to us

and he was just like, he was in shock,

and he was just shaking, and he was like,

"I didn't do it. You have to believe me."

And we were like, "Dad, we believe you. This is horrible.

"How can we not believe you?"

We didn't even know any details yet and we were just like,

"We believe you, we believe you.

"We know it's not true. This is horrible."

It was just so upsetting. I couldn't believe it.

But it was so hard to think about that

because, at the same time, we were thinking about our mother.

It was like two bombshells, I guess, hitting us.

We had a wonderful life.

There were five children, Kathleen, and myself.

Two of the children were mine from my first wife, Clayton and Todd.

There were two wonderful girls, Margaret and Martha,

who came to me when their father and their mother died.

And then there was Kathleen's child, from her first marriage, Caitlin.

We lived together for 14 years,

and we were happy every one of those years.

I started to have doubts, of course. I mean, how can you not

when you're hearing all these rumours going around

and things like that.

But it was the physical evidence that allowed me

to actually go back and look at the situation as a whole.

Because reading the autopsy report, I think was the point at which

I was convinced that my mother had been murdered.

Obviously the horrific intensity of the wounds and the fact that I just,

to me, could not physically come up with a way that you could get seven

deep lacerations on the back of your head by falling down the stairs.

And she goes, "Margaret, did you look at the autopsy report?"

And I said, "Yes, I looked through them thoroughly."

And she said, "There's no way Mom

"could have just fallen down the stairs.

"There's no way." And I was like, "You're not a doctor, Caitlin."

One of the hardest things to deal with was losing Caitlin.

And so quickly too. Just like that. Just never see her again.

It's never just Caitlin,

it's Margaret, Martha, Caitlin in a picture.

And it never was anything different than that.

We just had just a long history, and she's our sister.

I did consider Martha and Margaret my sisters

and my mother considered them her daughters,

but my goal, my strength in life is completely opposite.

It's in seeking justice for my mother. That's what I'm here for.

- Good morning, to each of you. Good morning.

In a very real sense, this case is about pretence and appearances.

It's about things not being as they seem.

The defendant says that Kathleen Peterson's death was

caused by a tragic accidental fall down stairs in their home.

And we say, on the other hand, that she died a horrible,

painful death at the hands of her husband, Michael Peterson.

This is one of the first photographs taken of her

as she's lying on a steel gurney in the Medical Examiner's office

after they've shaved her head

so that they can determine where the wounds are.

This is where the rubber meets the road, ladies and gentlemen.

They say it's an accident that was caused by a couple of falls