Michael Peterson is the subject of one of Netflix’s most riveting and polarizing true crime documentaries, stairs. The documentary follows Michael Peterson from the death of his wife in December 2001 until his release in 2017. Michael’s wife was found lying in a pool of blood at the bottom of a staircase at the couple’s residence.
Investigators quickly identified Michael as the prime suspect, as he was alone at the facility with Kathleen when she passed away. The jury found enough evidence to convict Michael of first degree murder and sent him to prison for life.
Leniency for Michael came in the form of procedural impropriety, forcing the judge to grant him a new trial in 2011. Before the new trial began, Peter entered Alford’s guilty plea to the misdemeanor charge of manslaughter and was arraigned. on freedom. as he had already done. he served time for murder.
Peterson lives a modest life in Durham, North Carolina, away from the glare of the media.
If it weren’t for the corruption of SBI analyst Duane Deaver, Michael Peterson would probably still be in jail. Duane Deaver, a blood spatter expert, had testified that the evidence pointed to murder.
In 2010, he was found guilty of withholding crucial evidence from defense attorneys in other cases. Due to the shock of Duane’s testimony, the court ordered a new trial for Peterson.
Michael opted out of the trial before it began in 2017. Instead, he entered Alford’s guilty plea to manslaughter. By accepting the guilty plea, he admitted that the prosecution had sufficient evidence to obtain a manslaughter conviction.
Peterson retired to Durham, North Carolina, after his release. His life had been dissected and torn apart by the media for nearly two decades, and it was time he got the privacy he so badly needed.
Yet the case that dominated much of his life still haunted him. In 2019, he himself published two books: Behind the ladder and beyond the ladder – detailing your side of the story.
The riches he had before his imprisonment no longer exist. Kathleen’s life insurance policy was lost and her stepdaughter, Caitlin, obtained a $25 million settlement from Michael through a wrongful death claim against her.
Michael donates the proceeds from his book to charity, as he would not be allowed to keep them. He is also of the opinion that by agreeing to pay, he would admit to murdering Kathleen.
Therefore, Michael lives a modest life in Durham, North Carolina. He enjoys a secluded life with the occasional appearance of the media to bring up that fateful staircase again.
Peterson lived with his ex-wife Patricia until she died of a heart attack.
Michael Peterson married Patricia Sue in 1968 and they later welcomed two sons: Todd and Clayton. The couple divorced, paving the way for Michael’s marriage to Kathleen Atwater.
Sue continued to support Peterson throughout his trial, incarceration, and release. The couple moved in together in 2019. “They were roommates,” Clayton said. news and watcher. “They took care of each other.”
Michael and Patricia separated after she died of a massive heart attack in July 2021.
Colin Firth stars as Michael Peterson in the latest version of the murder of Kathleen Peterson and Michael’s attempts to prove his innocence. Firth told Deadline that he didn’t meet Michael before playing him on HBO’s The Staircase. He explained:
“These are created characters, but we all know what the source is. We all know that these characters are named after living people, but they are carefully calibrated to tell the story in a certain way. I felt like I wanted to keep my inspiration, my motivation and the sense of the source material as much as possible within the script and the way it was written.”
Despite pleading guilty to manslaughter, Michael continues to assert his innocence.
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Despite his guilty plea, Michael still claims that he did not kill Kathleen Peterson. One of the most disconcerting revelations of his trial was that in 1985, Michael was the last person to see Elizabeth Ratliff before she was found dead at the bottom of a staircase.
At the time, authorities concluded that Elizabeth fell down the stairs after suffering a brain hemorrhage. In 2003, the North Carolina Medical Examiner re-examined Ratliff’s remains after they were exhumed in Texas.
It concluded that her death was a homicide caused by blunt force trauma. The conclusion portrayed Michael as a murderer with a propensity for pushing his victims down stairs and no doubt contributed to his conviction.
Michael insists that he did not kill Elizabeth or Kathleen. In 2019 he said doctor phil that Elizabeth fell down the stairs after suffering a stroke.
Since his release, Michael has avoided staying in houses with stairs, which might be a good idea. Defense attorney David Rudolf spoke with Oxygen on Michael’s current living situation:
“He’s living in Durham, I’m not sure why he’s living in Durham, but he is. It’s in a ground floor apartment with no stairs, that was really important accommodation.”
stairs is set to return to our screens as an HBO Max series. Colin Firth will play Michael Peterson and Sophie Turner will play Margaret Ratliff, one of Michael’s adoptive daughters. HBO has yet to announce a release date for stairs.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn