Michael Peterson (author)

Michael Peterson (author)
Michael Hancock Peterson
Born October 23, 1943 (1943-10-23) (age 68)
Nashville, Tennessee
Conviction(s) Murder
Penalty Life without parole
Status Nash Correctional Institution Nashville, North Carolina
Occupation Author
Spouse Patricia Sue Peterson (1965-1987)
Kathleen Hunt (1997-2001)
Children 2

Michael Iver Peterson (born October 23, 1943 near Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. to Eugen Iver Peterson and Eleanor Bartolino) is a fiction writer and politician. In 2003, he was convicted of the murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson.

Contents

Personal life

Michael "Mike" Peterson graduated from Duke University with a bachelor's degree in political science. He attended classes at the law school of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At Duke he was the president of Sigma Nu fraternity and the editor of The Chronicle. After leaving Duke, Peterson took a civilian job with the U.S. Department of Defense where he was assigned to research arguments supporting increased military involvement in Vietnam.

In 1965, Peterson married Patricia Sue Peterson who taught elementary school on the Rhein-Main Air Base in Grafenhausen, Germany. They had two children, Clayton and Todd. In 1968, he voluntarily enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam. He was discharged four years later after a car accident left him with a permanent disability. He received an honorable discharge with a permanent medical disability and retired with the rank of captain in 1971. Peterson has said he won a Silver Star, a Bronze Star With Valor and two Purple Hearts. He has all the medals, but said he does not have the documentation for them. The fiction writer had claimed that on one occasion he was hit by shrapnel when another soldier stepped on a land mine, and on another he was shot. Peterson later admitted his war injury was not the result of a shrapnel wound in Vietnam, but was the result of a vehicle accident in Japan, where he was stationed after the war as a military policeman. The News & Observer said records did not contain any mention of two Purple Heart medals Peterson has said he received.

Michael and Patricia lived in Germany for some time, where they befriended Elizabeth and George Ratliff and their two children, Margaret and Martha. After George's death in the Invasion of Grenada, the Peterson and Ratliff families became very close. When Elizabeth Ratliff died in 1985, her two children became Michael's wards. Michael and Patricia divorced in 1987, Clayton and Todd went to live with their mother, and Margaret and Martha stayed with Michael who then moved to Durham, North Carolina. Peterson wrote three successful books, The Immortal Dragon, A Time of War, A Bitter Peace and Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company. He also worked as a newspaper columnist for the Durham Herald-Sun where his columns became known for their criticism of police and the Durham County District Attorney James Hardin Jr., who was later to prosecute Peterson for Kathleen's murder.

In 1989, Michael moved in with Kathleen Atwater, a successful Nortel business executive and socialite. They married in 1997 and Kathleen's daughter Caitlin also joined the extended Peterson family.[1]

Murder trial

Kathleen's death

On December 9, 2001, Michael called the emergency line to report that he had just found Kathleen unconscious and suspected that she had fallen down "15 or 20 stairs." Peterson later maintained that Kathleen must have fallen down the stairs after consuming alcohol and valium. Toxicology results showed that his wife's blood alcohol content was 0.07 percent. The autopsy report concluded that the 48 year old victim sustained a matrix of severe injuries, including a fracture of the thyroid neck cartilage and seven lacerations to the top and back of her head consistent with blows from a blunt object and had died from blood loss one and a half to two hours after sustaining the injuries. Kathleen's sister, Candace Zamperini, and daughter Caitlin had both initially maintained Michael's innocence and publicly supported him alongside his children but Zamperini reconsidered upon finding out about Peterson's bisexuality as did Caitlin after reading her mother's autopsy report, both subsequently broke off from the rest of the family. Police investigators concluded that the injuries sustained were inconsistent with an accidental fall down the stairs (although a forensic expert later testified that the blood spatter evidence was consistent with an accident). As Michael Peterson was the only person at the residence at the time of Kathleen's death, he was the prime suspect, and was soon charged with her murder. He pleaded not guilty.

The Durham coroner concluded that Kathleen had died due to lacerations of the scalp caused by a homicidal assault. There were in total seven lacerations to the top and back of her head caused, according to the coroner, by repeated blows with a weapon similar to a fireplace poker.

The trial drew media attention, as the details of Michael's life emerged. The Durham County DA, James Hardin Jr and prosecutors (among them future District Attorney Mike Nifong[2]) attacked Peterson's credibility, focusing on his alleged misreporting of his military service[3] and what they described as a gay life he led and kept secret. The prosecution contended that the Petersons' marriage was far from happy, suggesting that Kathleen had discovered Michael's alleged secret gay life and wanted to end their marriage. Despite this scenario being discredited by police investigators, it was the only motive for Kathleen's alleged murder offered by the prosecution at trial.

"She would have been infuriated by learning that her husband, who she truly loved was bi-sexual and having an extramarital relationship - not with another woman - but a man, which would have been humiliating and embarrassing to her. We believe that once she learned this information that an argument ensued and a homicide occurred" —Assistant District Attorney, Freda Black

The defense argued that Kathleen knew about and accepted Michael's bisexuality and that the marriage was very happy, a position supported by Michael and Kathleen's children and numerous friends and associates.[1] The prosecution maintained a poker missing from the house was the weapon used, and showed jurors a replica claiming they could not find Peterson's. The missing poker actually had been found in the garage but forensic tests revealed that it could not have been the murder weapon. A juror contacted after the trial said the jury had dismissed a poker or anything like it thus making the poker irrelevant.[4] The defense disputed this finding as Kathleen's skull had not been fractured by the blows nor was the brain damaged. When asked by the defense why, in the 250 recorded beating deaths in North Carolina in the past decade, was there not one single incident involving multiple blows to the head which did not include these injuries, the coroner stated she did not research criminal cases so could not comment.[5]

Suspicion surrounding Elizabeth Ratliff's death

Elizabeth Ratliff, who died in Germany in 1985, was also found at the foot of her staircase with injuries to the head. The death was investigated by both the German police and U.S. military police. An autopsy at the time of her death concluded she had died from an intra-cerebral haemorrhage secondary to the blood coagulation disorder Von Willebrand's disease, based on blood in her cerebrospinal fluid and reports that she had been suffering severe, persistent headaches in the weeks leading up to her death. The coroner determined that the haemorrhage resulted in immediate death followed by Ratliff falling down the stairs after collapsing. Ratliff and her daughters had gone to the Petersons' home the previous night to have dinner with them and Peterson had driven them home and helped Ratliff put the children to bed. The children's nanny discovered the body when she arrived the next morning. Peterson was the last person to see her alive.[6]

Before Peterson's trial, the Durham court ordered the exhumation of Elizabeth's embalmed body for a second autopsy in April 2003. The defense requested an independent autopsy by a forensic pathologist in Texas, pointing out that the state has no shortage of qualified professionals in this field. Over the defense’s objection, the autopsy was conducted by the same Durham medical examiner who had performed Kathleen Peterson's first autopsy who later reported that Ratliff had also been murdered. This necessitated that the body be transported under guard from Texas at great expense.

The prosecution declined to accuse Peterson of Elizabeth's death but introduced the death into the trial as an incident giving Peterson the idea of how to "fake" Kathleen's accident.[7] Despite police reports that there was very little blood at the scene of Ratliff's death, the nanny, who was the first to discover Ratliff's body in 1985, took the stand at Peterson's trial and testified that there was a large amount of blood at the scene. Another witness testified spending much of the day cleaning blood stains off of the wall. Despite the implication that Peterson had also murdered Elizabeth Ratliff, her daughters stood by him: "The DA is trying to say that our dad killed our birth mother and our mother. But where are we sitting? We're sitting behind our dad."

The admissibility of the Ratliff evidence in court was one of the grounds for the subsequent appeal against his conviction, lodged by Peterson's lawyers in 2005.

Verdict

On October 10, 2003, after one of the longest trials in North Carolina history, a Durham County jury found Michael Peterson guilty of the murder of Kathleen Peterson and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Denial of parole requires premeditation, despite the jury accepting the murder was a "spur of the moment" crime they also found it was premeditated. As one juror explained it, premeditated meant not only planning hours or days ahead but could also mean planning in the seconds before committing a spur of the moment crime.

Peterson is housed at the Nash Correctional Institution near Rocky Mount.

Appeal

Peterson's appeal was filed by his defense counsel Thomas Maher, now serving as his court-appointed attorney, and was argued before the North Carolina Court of Appeals on April 18, 2006. On September 19, 2006 the Court of Appeals rejected Peterson's arguments that he did not get a fair trial because of repeated judicial mistakes.[8] The appeals ruling said the evidence was fairly admitted. The judges did find defects in a search warrant but said they had no ill effect on the defense.[9] Because the Court of Appeals' ruling was not unanimous, under North Carolina law Peterson had right to appeal to the North Carolina Supreme Court, which accepted the case. Oral argument was heard on September 10, 2007. On November 9, 2007 the Court announced that it affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals. Absent a reconsideration of the ruling or the raising of a federal issue, Peterson has exhausted his appeal of the verdict. As of Tuesday, March 10, 2009, the request for a new trial has been denied.

On November 12, 2008, J. Burkhardt Beale and Jason Anthony, Richmond, Va. attorneys, who now represent Michael Peterson, filed a motion for a new trial in Durham County court on three grounds: that the prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence about a tire iron; that the prosecution used an expert witness whose qualifications are disputed, and that one juror based his judgment on racial factors. On March 10, 2009 Peterson's motion was denied by the Durham County Superior Court.

Owl theory

In late 2009, Peterson's attorneys raised a new theory of Kathleen Peterson's death, that she had been attacked by an owl outside and had fallen after rushing inside and had been knocked unconscious after hitting her head on the first tread of the stairs. The owl theory was raised after Durham attorney T. Lawrence Pollard, who was not involved in the case at the time, approached the police suggesting the possibility that an owl was responsible after reading the SBI evidence list and finding a "feather" listed. Although Pollard never spoke of the theory to anyone else, the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper published an article ridiculing Pollard and discrediting his theory. The media picked up the story, repeating the Herald-Sun article, which was later criticized as inaccurate. Peterson's attorneys later determined that the SBI crime lab report listed a microscopic owl feather and a wooden sliver from a tree limb entangled in a clump of hair that had been pulled out by the roots found clutched in Kathleen's left hand.[10][11] A re-examination of the hair in September 2008 found two more microscopic owl feathers.[citation needed] Advocates allege the existence of other evidence supports the theory, namely that the scalp wounds were tri-lobed and paired consistent with marks left by talons, the feathers are similar to those found on the feet of owls, cedar needles were found on her hands and body indicating she had fallen over outside shortly before entering the house, that Kathleen's blood had splattered up the staircase rather than down, that Kathleen's footprints in her own blood indicated that she was already bleeding before she reached the foot of the stairs and that two drops of Kathleen's blood were found outside the house on the front walkway along with a finger smear on the front door consistent with her pushing the door shut. The advocates for the owl attack hypothesis also note that owl attacks on people are common in the area, with one victim stating that the impact was similar to being hit in the head with a baseball bat.[4] According to attorney T. Lawrence Pollard, had a jury been presented with this evidence it would have "materially affected their deliberation and therefore would have materially affected their ultimate verdict." Prosecutors have ridiculed the claim and Dr. Deborah Radisch, who conducted Kathleen Peterson's autopsy, says it is unlikely that an owl or any other bird could have made wounds as deep as those on Kathleen's scalp. However Dr. Radisch's opinion was challenged by other experts in three affadavits filed in 2010.[20] Dr. Alan van Norman wrote "The multiple wounds present suggest to me that an owl and Ms. Peterson somehow became entangled. Perhaps the owl got tangled in her hair or perhaps she grabbed the owl's foot."[20]

Dr. Patrick T. Redig, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota wrote

"In my professional opinion, the hypothesized attack to the face and back of the head resulting in the various punctures and lacerations visible in the autopsy photographs is entirely within the behavioral repertoire of large owls".[20]

Kate P. Davis, executive director of Raptors of the Rockies, located in western Montana, wrote

"The lacerations on Mrs. Peterson's scalp look very much like those made by a raptor's talons, especially if she had forcibly torn the bird from the back of her head," she wrote. "That would explain the feathers found in her hand and the many hairs pulled out by the root ball, broken or cut. The size and configuration of the lacerations could certainly indicate the feet of a Barred Owl." She noted that owls can kill species much larger than themselves and that it is not uncommon for them to attack people.[20]

No motion for a new trial was filed on this point in 2009.[12][13]

In August 2010, following a series of newspaper articles critical of the investigative tactics of State Bureau of Investigation agents, Attorney General Roy Cooper led an investigation which resulted in SBI analyst Duane Deaver, one of the principal witnesses against Peterson, being suspended after the report found his work among the worst done on scores of flawed criminal cases. Lawrence Pollard subsequently filed affidavits[14] to support a motion that Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson order the state Medical Examiner's Office to turn over all documentation related to Kathleen Peterson's autopsy to Peterson's attorneys. However, judge Hudson barred Pollard from filing further motions on behalf of Peterson because Pollard does not represent him. A new motion was filed by David Rudolf, one of Peterson’s original attorneys who will act pro bono in proceedings challenging the SBI testimony.[11][15][16]

Suspicions: a documentary of the trial

The court case generated widespread interest in part because of a televised documentary variously named Soupçons (Suspicions), Death on the Staircase and The Staircase, which detailed Peterson's legal and personal troubles. The six hour documentary was assembled from over 600 hours of footage and comprises eight segments. It was released by Maha Productions in October 2004 and was directed by French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The documentary offers an intimate depiction of defense preparations for the trial. It also examines the role and behavior of the popular press as it covered aspects of the case. The filmmakers started their project within weeks of the December 2001 death and Peterson's murder indictment; jury selection took place in May 2003 with the case itself going to trial in July 2003.

Following the guilty verdict, de Lestrade interviewed the jurors to find why they decided on this verdict.[17] By and large the jurors were swayed by the amount of blood Kathleen lost and the number of lacerations which indicated to them it could not have been an accident. However, Dr. Henry Chang-Yu Lee had testified at the trial that the amount of blood was irrelevant as the blood spatter indicated most of it was coughed up rather than from the wounds themselves. He also suggested some of the blood could have been diluted with urine. Lee had also duplicated blood spatter from coughing for the jury by drinking ketchup and spitting it out.[6][18][19]

2007 film

The story was filmed as The Staircase Murders, starring Treat Williams.

Current status of the parties

  • In October 2002, acting as administrator of Kathleen's estate, Caitlin filed a wrongful death claim against Michael. In June 2006, he voluntarily filed for bankruptcy. Two weeks later Caitlin filed an objection to the bankruptcy. On February 1, 2007, Caitlin and Michael settled the wrongful death claim for $25 million, pending acceptance by the courts involved; finalization of the settlement by the court was announced on February 1, 2008. In the settlement, Michael did not admit that he murdered Kathleen. Caitlin is unlikely to ever collect a significant amount of the judgment.
  • Caitlin Atwater recently graduated from Cornell University.
  • Peterson's younger son, Todd Peterson, lives in Dubai.
  • Peterson's older son, Clayton Peterson, was married in 2004.
  • Martha Ratliff lives in San Francisco.
  • Margaret Ratliff is studying documentary filmmaking at Columbia College in Chicago.
  • Following the trial, one of Peterson's lawyers, Thomas Maher, resigned from the firm that bore his name (Rudolf, Maher, Widenhouse & Fialko). He is now Peterson's court-appointed attorney.
  • Lead defense counsel David Rudolf mentions the Peterson case on his website [5].
  • This case was featured in the episode "A Novel Idea" of Forensic Files.
  • This case was featured in the episode "Murder, He Wrote" of Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege, and Justice on TruTv

See also

  • The Staircase, a documentary mini-series of the trial.

References

  1. ^ a b "Wife's staircase death at center of novelist's murder trial". Court TV. 2001. http://www.courttv.com/trials/novelist/background_ctv.html. Retrieved 2009-03-11. 
  2. ^ In June 2007, DA Nifong was disbarred for "fraud, dishonesty, deceit or misrepresentation; of making false statements of material fact before a judge; of making false statements of material fact before bar investigators and of lying about and withholding exculpatory DNA evidence" for his actions in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case.
  3. ^ Peterson had maintained that he had received a Purple Heart for a combat injury during his service in Vietnam. In fact it was awarded for injuries received in a car accident.
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ http://www.courttv.com/trials/novelist/timeline.html.
  6. ^ a b Death at the bottom of the stairs NBC Dateline November 25, 2006
  7. ^ The defense argued that the state of rigor indicated that Ratliff had died late in the morning. There was no evidence that Peterson had returned to Ratliffs house after dropping her off the previous night and evidence supports that he was still in bed with his wife around the time of death.
  8. ^ Defendant - Appellants Brief
  9. ^ State v. Peterson
  10. ^ Feathers flying in Michael Peterson case le Monde September 5, 2008
  11. ^ a b Three affidavits support Peterson's murderous owl theory Durham County News Observer August 19, 2010
  12. ^ Attorney wants owl theory reconsidered in Peterson murder case WRAL-TV August 11, 2009
  13. ^ Evidence points to owl in Peterson case Le Monde September 4, 2008
  14. ^ Neurosurgeon and owl expert Dr. Alan van Norman, Dr. Patrick T. Redig a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Minnesota and Kate P. Davis, the director of Raptors of the Rockies signed affidavits claiming that the evidence and injuries are consistent with an attack by an owl, possibly a Barred Owl.
  15. ^ Michael Peterson impacted by SBI report? ABC News August 20, 2010
  16. ^ http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/08/27/651015/attorney-forbidden-from-filing.html
  17. ^ The murder weapon was never identified. While his clothes were bloody from cradling his wife, Peterson had insufficient blood spattering on his clothes to support an attack. Media reports explained this by saying he probably changed his clothes but investigators determined very early that he had not.
  18. ^ Court TV News CNN
  19. ^ Forensic neuropathologist Jan Leestma testified Kathleen Peterson had likely sustained four blows to the head, not seven as the medical examiner testified.[2] The prosecution counted avulsion wounds as multiple injuries and the Medical Examiner also initially counted four wounds following the autopsy.[3]

20. http://www.thedurhamnews.com/2010/08/25/203219/three-experts-back-owl-theory.html

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