"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?" " 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!" "'" "REPORTER:" "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." "REPORTER:" "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." "REPORTER:" "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?" "'" "(SOBBING)" "'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." " ALL:" "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 in that stairway and we say it's not." "We say it's murder." "Agent Duane Deaver is the blood spatter expert who's going to talk about how he contends Kathleen was impacted in this area." "Duane Deaver finds what he will call are several points of origin." "And what he will also say is that, from his perspective, this was very, very important because it was above the floor." "It was above the step area." "He will say that it's positioned in such a manner that these can't be due to an accidental impact on the stairs." "Can you imagine somebody beating somebody over the head, whacking them as hard as they can - because you don't whack somebody like this when you're trying to kill them." "Imagine that there's no skull fracture." "There's no brain contusions." "There's no swelling of the brain." "There's none of the internal haemorrhages, subdurals, things like that, that you would see from that kind of injury." "No, none of them." "Because the truth is not that Michael Peterson decided to beat Kathleen Peterson to death with a blow poker in the stairway of his home after spending a quiet evening." "That's not the truth of what happened." "The truth is that Kathleen Peterson, after drinking some wine and some champagne and taking some Valium, tried to walk up a narrow, poorly lit stairway in flip flops and she fell and she bled to death." "Everyone who really knew that relationship..." "Everyone... knew that they loved each other." "Everyone who knew them knows that Michael Peterson had nothing to do with the death of Kathleen Peterson." "One of the most awful things that could ever befall somebody is to think to yourself," ""The only way I'm ever going to get out of here is in a coffin."" "And that thought" " I won't say it occurred to me often - but every so often it would flit across my mind." "And I would think to myself, "Boy, he's there until he dies."" "And it was only when all this publicity started coming out about" "Deaver that I started feeling like maybe, maybe there was a chance." "The decision..." "Judge Calvin E Murphy rules that Gregory F Taylor has proved by clear and convincing evidence that Gregory F Taylor is innocent of the charge of first degree murder of Jacquetta Thomas on September 26, 1991." "A Wake County man, who spent 17 years in prison, has been exonerated by the North Carolina Innocence Commission in Raleigh." "Greg Taylor, who had been condemned to life in prison in 1993, is now a free man." "The commission's three-judge panel centred around the testimony of one SBI agent" " Duane Deaver." "Deaver admits to having misrepresented blood test results in the Taylor case." "The SBI has announced plans for an internal investigation." "Deaver is a major character in the emerging story of the SBI's troubles." "At the bureau's crime labs, where Deaver had been a key agent and trainer, analysts charged with using science to solve crimes have hidden test results or concocted bizarre experiments to shore up a prosecutor's case." "I interviewed Tonya Rogers, who was one of jurors in the Michael Peterson trial." "She said that Deaver's testimony was the most important evidence presented at the trial." "Ms Rogers said that, during the jury's deliberations, they started off split, 6-6 or 8-4, but as they talked the most powerful evidence that moved the jury to come 12-0 for a conviction was that bloodstain on the inside of Michael Peterson's shorts." "The jury was convinced by Deaver's testimony that the only way the bloodstain could have arrived there was through an assault." "When I heard what Deaver had done in the Greg Taylor case, it became clear to me that I might be able to finally prove that what he had done in Michael's case was the same sort of thing." "In other words, ignore the facts, ignore the science, and do what you need to do to get a conviction." "Ten years ago next Friday, Kathleen Peterson was found dead at the bottom of a staircase in their home." "Almost two years after that, her husband Mike Peterson was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison." "Now Mike Peterson hopes a hearing that could begin next week will give him a new chance at freedom." "The district attorney's office has seen some turnover since Peterson's murder trial in 2003." "The original DA, Jim Hardin, is now a superior court judge." "Freda Black, the assistant DA at the time, is no longer with the district attorney's office." "Tracey Cline, who is Durham's current DA, will represent the State." "Some of the key players have remained the same " "Orlando Hudson, Durham County's Superior Court Judge, and" "David Rudolf, who is taking on the case pro bono, are back on the case." "Oh, wow, it's Ron Guerette!" "Martha, Ron Guerette just walked in." " Oh my God." "Hi!" " Hey, girl." "I'm going to get up and hug you." "I'm on the phone with Martha, with my sister." " You're not a kid any more." " Good to see you." "I know!" " What have you been up to?" " Just working in this crazy world." "Yeah, I know what you mean." "He's trying to come back from his near-bankruptcy in 2003 as a result of working on your father's case." " Still working on it." " Wow, it's been eight years." "I can't believe it." " You've gone from a little kid to a young lady." " Little kid?" " I was, like, 20!" " You were still a little kid." " Yeah, I'm turning 30 on Saturday." " Is that right?" " Yeah, it's been ten years." " Wow!" " Yeah." "Yeah, because Mom died on the 9th and I turned 20 on the 10th" " and..." " Oh, that's right!" " Crazy." " That is crazy." " Yeah, I'm married now." " Are you?" "Well, congratulations." "'Well, one thing about Radisch, Deaver 'and Butts is they have been in this very courtroom before." "'They have." "They've testified in front of people just like you." "'Agent Deaver, Doctor Radisch, they are tried and true." "Tried and true." "'Because they work for us." "'Now to hear them tell it, that scene was altered." "'if you believe that, you're just going to have to believe" " 'that Duane Deaver is just a liar.'" " Pleasant memories?" "'He has no reason in the world to come up here and lie to you.'" " Wow, that one..." " Where she says you have..." " Where she says they'll be back in the courtroom again - it just gave me chills." "And you have to believe that Deaver's a liar." "Guess what?" "And he tried to get himself vindicated by blaming it on the SBI in general and that got him fired." "Well, after editing that stuff for you for the Deaver clips, my husband watched it too and he goes, "This guy's an idiot."" " Yeah." "I know." " Greg Taylor was let out." " How long was he in prison?" " 17 years." " Yeah, he was in there for quite a while." " Oh, my God." "That's terrible." "Like, it's just a little lie that put someone away for 17 years." "That's devastating." "God." "Greg Taylor." "I live in Durham, North Carolina." "49 years old." "When I was 29 years old, I was arrested for first-degree murder and tried and convicted April 1993." "I was 31 years old at the time and I was married, had a nine-year-old daughter and after that things just kind of fell apart." "In the beginning you think that the next appeal you'll be free or the next motion filed in court and then when those things let you down, you come to realise that if you've been let down so many times" "so far, there's nothing to stop you from being let down in the future." "And it just went on interminably until finally when I had exhausted all my appeals and I realised that the chances were very good that" "I was going to die in prison and I had to learn how to deal with that." "I don't have faith in the system like" "I used to have, but I still believe" " I hope - that justice will finally prevail after eight years." "And I'll get out of here." "I want people to see what Duane Deaver did." "I want all of it to come out." "I want people to see what that man did not just to me, but to other people." "He'd say these ridiculous things and I just would not pay any attention." "I wouldn't even listen anymore, thinking that nobody could believe this nonsense of hitting Kathleen 42 times or whatever it was." "This re-enactment that he did." "It was just all a lie." "So, at the time, I just thought, well, this is just stupid, nobody's going to believe this." "But they did." "I do think that it's Michael's last chance." "It's been eight years." "He is now 68 years old and all of his appeals have been denied and this is really the best opportunity that we're going to have to prove that he should never have been convicted." "19, please." "All right, Mike." "They're saying that they took your clothes over yesterday to have them prepared." "Come on with me, please." "I remember just a couple of nights ago, I dreamed I was there, old man, lying on a gurney at the end of a corridor." "You go to central prison and you die." "And you die alone, no family, no-one." "And you die on a gurney." "And I remember having that dream and waking up thinking, "No!" But it was a pretty scary dream." "Mike, is this going to be good enough for you today?" "Is it what you want to wear?" "OK." "That sports coat?" "That shirt?" "Belt?" "OK." "INAUDIBLE EXCHANGE" " Sorry." " MICHAEL LAUGHS" "Judge, Mrs Zamperini wants to be heard." "And she is a victim, Judge, because I believe that Mr Peterson was convicted of first degree murder." "Her sister was murdered, according to a jury." "So Mrs Zamperini would like to be heard if the court is inclined just to give her a few minutes." " All right." " Thank you, Your Honour." "Yes, sir." "Good morning, um, Judge Orlando." "I think you're aware that I am Kathleen's sister." "In this court, that is very rarely heard." "KATHLEEN is a victim of murder." "We have rights in this state." "That is why there's a judge in this courtroom to make sure victims' rights are heard." "That is, in my opinion, the judge's sole responsibility, to make sure that there is clear, fair, quality representation for the victim, dead or alive." "My sister has lied in her grave for ten years." "This Friday, ten years, she was murdered." "SHE BANGS THE TABLE Ten years, I've been without my sister." "Ten years, her daughter hasn't had her." "And, ten years, the rest of us have been alive and had our freedom." "But not Kathleen." "Not Kathleen." "She wanted to live and she deserves and should get the best, best legal representation." "And there is no way I feel, sir, that you can have this district attorney represent my sister's rights and feel you are doing the best job by the citizens of this state in having her represent and not the Attorney General's office step in." "She is not prepared." "It is clear she is not prepared." "The office is not prepared." "Thank you very much, sir." "All right." "The court, in its discretion, will deny the motion to continue." "The court is ready to proceed." "Your Honour, the key issue during Mr Peterson's trial was what happened in the stairway." "There was only one witness called by the state who claimed to be able to say what happened in the stairway." "And that was SBI agent Duane Deaver." "He testified that the bloodstain patterns in the stairway proved that there had been a beating." "He testified that the bloodstains on Michael Peterson's shorts - and, in particular, there was a stain inside the shorts - and on his shoes proved that he inflicted this alleged beating, because he claimed he could tell that the wearer of those items" "was in close proximity to Kathleen Peterson when her head was impacted." "But we don't have to take my word for whether Mr Deaver was a critical witness." "We can listen to district attorney Jim Hardin." "'Now what does Duane Deaver find?" "'" "This is the first area that he contends is the first point of impact." "This is above the 15th step." "It's off the wall." "It's off the riser and it's out in space." "Impact spatter in the crotch area of these pants, in the back side of this right leg." "Duane Deaver said the only way that can happen is if he's standing over her with his leg above her striking her." "'Now why do we know there was a second assault?" "'" "Because Duane Deaver says, and this is absolutely critical," "Duane Deaver sees blood spatter on top of the clean-up." "There's only one way that can happen." "If there's a second assault." "'He assaulted her, 'she went down, 'he continued to assault her, ' and that's when the premeditation formulated." "And, of course, the only thing Mr Peterson was charged with was first degree, so, without premeditation, the state's case failed." "And the state relied upon Duane Deaver during the trial." "'There's been no evidence in this case' that anything that was done to that scene altered the walls." "Nobody was walking on the walls." "'There's been no evidence, no credible evidence, 'that anybody did anything to the stairwell.'" "Well, if you believe that, you're just going to have to believe that Duane Deaver is just a liar... and he has no reason in the world to come here and lie to you." "'Agent Deaver, Dr Radisch, ' they are tried and true, tried and true, cos they work for us." "What we didn't know then about Duane Deaver, but we do know now, is that Duane Deaver had a pattern and practice of preparing misleading expert reports, of doing shoddy and scientifically invalid work, of presenting misleading testimony under oath." "He did it in 2010 at the Innocence Commission Hearing, State vs Greg Taylor." "We never asked for a perfect trial." "We hoped to get a fair trial and I know that this court did its best..." " ALARM WAILS - ..to give us a fair trial." "ALARM CONTINUES" "Thank you very much." "I think that's my cue." " It's Candace." " Yeah, I'm sure that's right." "ALARM CONTINUES" "WOMAN:" "Yeah, leave the building." "VOICES ON RADIOS" "PEOPLE CHATTER MAN:" "Everybody, move back." " Back of the lot!" " Move back, move back!" " Man, let's move." "Let's go, man." " It's a bomb threat." " Are you serious?" " It's a bomb threat." " It's a bomb threat?" " Yeah." " Oh..." "Oh, my God." "It was surprising to see that  40% of Hardin's closing statement was about Duane Deaver." "It was about his research," " his testimony, and..." " That was pretty shocking." "I don't think they had anything else that made it first degree" " and that was all Deaver." " That was it." "Exactly." " Made me feel sick to my stomach." " I know." " Ten years a-wasted." " Yeah." " Nine years a-wasted." " Mike, there you go." " OK, thank you." " Don't drop the plate." " No, I got it, I got it." "My God, I'm wearing this ten-pound boot on my foot!" " HE LAUGHS" " I can barely move!" "What was so nice was to see everybody and my children there." "I can't really talk to them." "That's not allowed." "I certainly can't touch them or interact with them, so that's very hard, but it's wonderful to know that they're there." "Should be in one of these here." " Dad, we're here!" "We're here!" "Oh, my God!" " I know!" " Dad, we love you!" " Oh, my God!" " Oh, my God!" " I have never been so tired in my life." " BILL:" " I can relate!" " Oh, God!" " But everything's OK?" " Yeah." " You like LA?" " Yeah, I love LA." " And you love Boulder?" " I don't love it, but it's good." " You look great." " Thank you." " You look..." " Margaret's helping me with fashion tips." "LAUGHTER" " Well, what did you think of Candace?" " HE LAUGHS" " Wow, how was that?" " Dad, are you safe?" "I'm afraid she's going to hunt you down!" "And I told you that from the beginning - don't hate." " Don't get caught up in it." "And you could see that in her face..." " Yeah." " ..and her eyes..." " And her hands." " Just CONSUMED by hatred." " Yeah." "And yes, you know, I understand it." "But she can't be the only victim, you see." "You guys are victims." "I'm a victim." "Um..." "You don't have to be there all day, every day." "I want to, it's fascinating!" "I'm so angry at Deaver!" "I just want to see all the crap that's talked about him." " SHE LAUGHS" " You know, sometimes I wonder," " "Where was I during some of that trial?"" " I know!" " Yeah!" " I don't remember some of that stuff." " Yeah." " He was so..." " He was so boring!" " Yeah, he was gross." " He was just boring and gross." " Supercilious, a know-it-all..." " Yeah!" " He was really terrible." "Oh, I..." "Yeah, I hated him so much." "Oh, God, lord!" " OK." "No more crying." " Whatever!" "That's going to make us cry more." "THEY LAUGH" "We'll see you tomorrow!" " I love you, Dad!" " Bye-bye." " Bye!" " He does look very tired." " Yeah, I know." " I don't remember how we got in." " What's the...?" "You know, we don't know really what happened, and so we have to live with the mystery of her death and trust that our dad didn't kill her at the same time." "So it's kind of a hard position to be in..." "I think... or it's a position that would, you know, bring up a lot of stuff, so, um..." "So I've never doubted my dad's innocence, but... it's just, it's... just kind of..." "I don't know, a hard place to be." "Um..." "I was looking at here - photographs that were taken from his computer and most of them are of homosexual military men and they're all different types of things that they're doing, you know, multiple partners, but they're all portrayed as being" "gay military men, um, performing sexual acts on each other." "It's not the type of thing your typical, average citizen would want to access." "Not if they want to portray themselves as someone that has this perfect marriage or however he wants to make his life seem so perfect, um, with his wife." "I loved Kathleen." "Kathleen loved me." "I could not love anybody else." "She could not love anybody else." "That's the faithfulness that we..." "meant to one another." "It transcended body." "It was much deeper than that." " I loved her spiritually..." " HE TAPS HIS CHEST" "..as well as physically, so I saw no, nor did she see, any problem." "She would've been infuriated by learning that her husband, who she truly loved, was bisexual." "We believe that, once she learned this information, that an argument ensued and a homicide occurred." " State your name, please." " Brent Wolgamott." " How old are you, sir?" " I'm 28 years old, ma'am." "Do you remember when you were contacted by a person" " with the name "mpwriter"?" " Yes, ma'am." "Did you all actually discuss what you were going to do when you were to get together on September 5, 2001?" " Yes, ma'am." " And what we're y'all planning on doing?" " Er, having sex." " What type of sex, sir?" " Um..." " Do you know?" " Can I say it?" "I guess, anal sex." " OK." " Did you get together with him on September 5, 2001?" " No, ma'am." " Well, what happened?" " I had a very long day and, when I got up there that night," "I just said, you know what, I'll talk to him when I come back." "I'm just tired and I want to go to Palm Springs, so I didn't go." "We found out he's bisexual." "We found out that he'd had correspondence with a male, military prostitute kind of guy." "We found out crazy stuff." "I mean, lots of crazy, crazy stuff, but none of it really shocked me at all." "I mean, it was more like," ""Oh, great, this is going to be terrible for the case,"" "you know, "jurors hate this stuff, especially in Durham," um, but..." "Yeah, it wasn't like, um..." "I was never presented with anything that made me think twice about my dad." "Did Michael Peterson ever do or say anything, either on the phone or in an e-mail, that indicated that he was not in love with Kathleen Peterson?" "To the contrary, unlike most of my clients, he indicated that he had a great relationship." "Most clients don't want to say anything about their relationship." "He indicated he had a warm relationship with his wife and nothing would ever destroy that." "To think that he had this secret life going on is baffling and it makes me think there are so many things I didn't know about him and it cancels out all trust I have in him." "Parent figures have always been difficult for us." "Just having such a tumultuous experience of... losing our birth parents." "Living with Patty and our dad was really tumultuous." "We were kind of tossed around a lot and then we moved in with Kathleen and Dad and Kathleen had a daughter, Caitlin." "And, you know, we weren't anybody's natural children, so we kind of... had... parent issues most of our lives, I guess." "THEY LAUGH" " Um..." " I think, yeah, the thing that makes me so sad is that our two constants, really..." "I mean, Dad was the only continuity we've had in our lives for parents." "Um..." "And so I feel like that's why we have such a strong bond with him, um, and with each other, but also Mom, Kathleen, it's.." "She really was the first person who took us in and combed our hair." "I just know that, um, my mom died in '85 from a brain haemorrhage." "She had been having many headaches before." "I mean, there's..." "Many people have said this." "That, um, she called her mother complaining of headaches." "She hated doctors, like I don't like doctors either!" "Neither does Martha, um..." "So she didn't want to go see one no matter how much, you know, Dad..." "Um, Mike and Patty, I guess, um, told her to go and she basically died before she even hit the bottom of the stairs." "NEWS ON TV" "'The murder case against Michael Peterson doesn't just involve 'his wife any more - it involves a friend who died 18 years ago.'" "'Elizabeth Ratliff was a friend of Michael Peterson." "'In fact, Peterson was with Ratliff 'the night before she was found dead in Germany." "'Ratliff's body was discovered at the bottom of the staircase in 1985 'and prosecutors have implied that the circumstances of her death 'mirror those of Michael Peterson's wife Kathleen.'" "The two daughters that were adopted by Michael Peterson were the daughters of Elizabeth Ratliff, that woman that died 18 years ago in Germany." "They were raised by Michael Person, raised as his own daughters, and they refer to him as Dad and, as I told you before, those two girls, who are now grown up and in their twenties," "are supporting Michael Peterson." "So while prosecutors, on the one hand, say Michael Peterson is responsible for killing their biological mother and for killing their step-mother who was helping to raise them, they are saying no." "There's an autopsy report that says, "Cause of death - natural causes."" " "The stairway killer." Is that the idea?" " That's what they'll try..." " He found a way to kill women 17 years apart." " Right." "Once it became clear to us that the prosecution was going to try and use this evidence in Germany, we went to Germany ourselves." "'We spoke with Patty Peterson, 'who had been there with Liz the night before she died and who was 'at her house with Michael that morning that her body was found.'" "There was nothing out of place, except she was no longer living." "Everything was as if one would've walked into a normal home." " You know, there was no pool of blood, there were no..." " Spatters?" "I mean, there could have been a few spatters here, but so small that they did not register with me." "She was turned sideways." " She was turned on her side facing upwards." " Facing that way?" "Yes, like that." "In the very beginning, I was surprised when people made a connection between Liz and Kathleen, because there was no connection." "Liz had had a stroke." "She was found at the bottom of the stairs." "Kathleen fell down the stairs, I firmly believe." "I saw no connection between those, but now, of course, knowing how it was presented." ""This person murdered, found at the bottom of the steps." "Anybody would understandably come to that conclusion." "Three, two, one." "The DA thinks that there's enough similarity between the two deaths that they've had Ratliff's body exhumed from a cemetery here in Texas and brought to the medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill." "It was, like, my worst nightmare when I was little." "You know, you'd have nightmares of, like... your mother, your parents coming back alive and, like, what they would look like, you know, just typical childhood nightmares and it was like it was coming true." "They spent thousands of dollars transporting her body 1,200 miles from Bay City, Texas, to Chapel Hill in order to allow the very same medical examiner, who had already concluded that Kathleen Peterson's death was not accidental," "to perform that autopsy in the hopes of coming to the same conclusion." "I expect him to be found guilty of killing his wife and I think, after the autopsy tomorrow, people will have... issues, I think, with the result of that, as far as his involvement with the death of Elizabeth Ratliff." "'They didn't prove that Elizabeth Ratliff had been murdered, 'but just the jury hearing about all this created this impression' that Michael Peterson must've been responsible in some way." "'This is just too big a coincidence.'" "In my opinion, the cause of death of Mrs Ratliff was blunt trauma of the head." " JIM HARDIN:" " Do you also have an opinion as to the manner of Mrs Ratliff's death?" " In my opinion..." " Objection." " Overruled." "In my opinion, the manner of death in Mrs Ratliff's case was homicide." "Court is now in recess for ten minutes." "'When I found out the evidence of Liz Ratliff's death' 'and that it was very similar to my mother's death, ' there was a possibility that I had been living with a man for 13 years who had possibly committed murder 18 years ago and, all this time," "there was this big secret, something I didn't know about him, and that's very scary." "DOOR RATTLES LOUDLY" "Step right over here." "DOOR BANGS AND SQUEAKS" "So what do you have?" "You have two women murdered on or pushed down, whatever..." " Oh!" " ..two staircases, two different countries..." " Take it easy." "..and one man present with them each time." "Both ruled a homicide." "The second thing is the blood wiping on the walls." "The medical examiner testified, and I read last night, that Kathleen Peterson laid there and was bleeding for a time - she couldn't say how long - for a period of time before she died." "But it's clear evidence that somebody was wiping the blood off the walls." "And then, how do you get past the blood spatter on his shoes?" "And then, the bloody footprint on the back of her leg." "And judge, I went back and I looked at the photographs in this case." "I don't know how high that ceiling is in that home, but anybody with common sense would know that the blood on that ceiling and on the wall did not come from falling down the steps." "I grew up in a house that had steps." "I've fallen down the steps." "My mother's fallen down the steps." "Separate and apart from anything Mr Deaver did," "Mr Labor and Mr Epstein indicate in their report that this was clearly not a fall down the steps and furthermore, Judge Hudson, they indicated from wearing the pants of Michael Peterson that the spatter inside of those pants came in an upward direction," "and found that, in their opinion," " Mr Peterson was standing over the body of this young lady..." " Not true." " That's just not true." " ..when that spatter went inside of his pants." "Your Honour, at this time, the defendant would call Mike Klinkosum to the stand." "In 1991, Greg, um, and his acquaintance Johnny Beck had been out in Raleigh that evening and had been seeking drugs and drinking." "They had been together, because Johnny knew where to get drugs and Greg had the money and so they were doing drugs together and they ended up driving down into a cul-de-sac on Blunt Street, here in Raleigh," "and they sat there for a while and smoked some more crack and, then, at one point, when they were getting ready to leave," "Greg decided, because he had a four-wheel drive vehicle, that he would go down this dirt path out into this field." "And when he did, he got his car stuck in a ravine out in the field." "As so, as they walked back into the cul-de-sac on Blunt Street, they noticed..." "And this was in the early hours." "They noticed, um, what Greg at first thought was a roll of carpet lying in the road in the cul-de-sac and it was really Johnny who determined that it was a body." "And because they had been out using drugs and Greg still had some marijuana on him and didn't have a driver's licence, they just decided to leave it be." "And later that morning, he went back to the cul-de-sac and he walked up to the police and told them that that was his truck in the field." "And they asked him to come down to be questioned and he agreed to do that and, at that point, um, things started rolling against him." "They had found stains on the fender and the fender liner that law enforcement thought might be blood." "So they sent these stains to the SBI lab for testing in the serology section." "The report that was generated and signed by Agent Deaver from the SBI lab said that there were chemical indications for the presence of blood." "That's what was written in the lab report." "What was not turned over or disclosed was the fact that Agent Deaver had gotten a negative result on the Takayama test, which indicated that he could not confirm that those two stains were in fact blood." "And the lab report that was given to defence counsel, given to the prosecutor and introduced into evidence," "Duane Deaver's lab report, did it say anything about the fact" " that an additional test had been done?" " No." "What was the result of that trial?" "Um, Mr Taylor was convicted of first degree murder." " And what was his sentence?" " Er, he was..." "Life in prison." "Did you see in the report where Agent Deaver stated, in his opinion, there is nothing scientifically wrong with what they reported and they did not hurt anybody by not reporting negative results." "Do you see that?" "Greg Taylor is the prime example." "He spent 17 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit and if the results of the confirmatory test, the Takayama test, had been turned over," "I think that would have made a large impact on the jury, because, at his trial, the prosecutor, um, in his closing argument, several times referred to the blood on the truck." "I think, even later, some jurors gave their opinion that the blood on the truck was a major factor, um, in their decision." "It never occurred to anybody." "We thought they hadn't done all the testing they should've done." "Er, we thought the testing was probably not accurate, but it never occurred to anybody that they had done the testing and just hidden the results." "Um... they're scientists and scientists are supposed to be about the facts." "They're not supposed to take sides." "They're supposed to reveal everything they find and not have bias, but the fact that they held back these confirmatory tests was... was absolutely biased in favour of the prosecution in the way they conducted, er, they prepared that final report." "So I was shocked, really." "We were all shocked." "You know, how could a lab do that?" "You'd expect..." "I'd expect it from a prosecutor or a policeman or an attorney, maybe a judge or whatever, but from a lab, you know?" "You know, where's the..." "the sense of fairness?" "Why do they feel like they have to do something like that?" "Um, you know, when I think about, you know, all the years that I lost, because of this, what I missed of my daughter growing up, you know." "I missed her tenth birthday." "I missed her high school graduation." "I missed her college graduation." "I missed her getting married." "I missed the birth of my grandson." "You know, she was 26 years old when I was released and I missed all that." "I look at her today like she's a stranger, cos I don't know how she came to be about herself." " Do you know which direction to go?" " Um..." "HE GASPS" " Say hi?" " How are you doing?" " Say hi?" "Hi, Grandpa!" "How you doing?" "HE CHATTERS TO THE BABY, BECKY LAUGHS" " His first visit to jail." " But he's been to prison twice already!" " Dada!" " He's seen you twice at Nash." " In prison!" "That's right." "Right!" "His first time to jail, though." "The first through-the-glass conversation!" "All those little memories that you write down in the baby scrapbook, you know!" " In his baby book!" " SHE LAUGHS" "Oh, for God's sake!" " Oh, it's good to see you!" "God!" " You too, Dad." "THEY LAUGH" "Oh, Christ!" "Now your ears go back beautifully!" "Yeah, everything's great." " Work's going well, all this is good." " He's a darling." "You know, down here with family, it's stressful but, you know," " it's nice to see everybody." " Oh, yeah!" "So do you think he looks like anyone yet?" " I think his ears are a little like mine." " They are!" "I said that to Margaret the other day, because we were looking at you in court from the back and I look at him from the back and your ears look the same from the back." "I had gorgeous small ears when I was young." " Is he going to have hair or not?" " I don't know." " One of these days." " Some day!" "Some day!" "When you see Margaret, would you please wish her a happy birthday?" " That poor child." " I know." "You know, I wrote about this day with her." "I was there when she was born." "Well, I wasn't in the room, but I took her to the hospital in 1981, drove her in a snowstorm to go to, you know, Wiesbaden hospital." "And then, I was there every birthday after that." "Every single birthday she ever had," "I was there until, I guess it was about the 18th birthday." "Then she went to college." "And then there was the 20th birthday." " Yeah, that one kind of sucked." " Kind of sucked?" "(!" ")" "Yeah, you remember that?" "Watching the grid search of the house." "And then here it is, her 30th birthday." "Oh my god." "So maybe this is the last I'm going to see of Dorian until you bring him down for our ice cream and tattoo outing." "Well, we'll see." " So I'll see you Tuesday morning." " Yup." "You're going to watch me hobble down the stairs, OK?" "God almighty!" "Christ." "Don't let them film me going down the stairs!" "THEY CHUCKLE" "Jesus." "No filming going down the stairs!" "I love you." " Love you, Dad." " Bye bye." "Come on, wave." "Bye bye!" " Bye, Dad." "Love you." " Oh, shit." "♪ Happy birthday to you" "♪ Happy birthday to you" "♪ Happy birthday dear Margaret" "♪ Happy birthday to you. ♪" "APPLAUSE AND CHEERING" "APPLAUSE AND CHEERING" "It was snowing, gently falling everywhere and after many, many hours of intensive labour, I was at your birth mother's side." "Margaret at long last emerged." "She was exquisitely beautiful and she looked exactly the same." "Lovely red strawberry blonde hair." "To Margaret, much love." "May the future bring you much happiness and continued fulfilment." "We love you, dearest Margaret." "APPLAUSE" "Thanks for coming, guys." "I hope your thirties are freaking awesome!" "APPLAUSE" "My 20th birthday sucked so hardcore and my 30th birthday is so much better, so thank you guys for coming." "It's gonna just be a lot better from now on." "I hope." "So to all of you guys and to Dad, too." "Place your left arm on the Bible, raise your right arm and swear the testimony you're about to give the court and the jury in the case now being heard to be the truth and nothing but the truth," " so help you God." " I do." " Please be seated." "Did there come a time when you were asked to conduct a review of the SBI laboratory?" "Yes, in early March of 2010 we agreed to conduct a review of all serology files with similar reporting sequences as had appeared in the Taylor case." "The purpose of the report was to see if there had been any cases of injustice." "Did you find that there were at least a number of agents, not just agent Deaver, who were producing lab reports that didn't have all of the tests that they had actually run?" "We identified 230 cases where not all the tests were reported in the final report that was issued by the lab." "You would see a presumptive positive and a negative Takayama shown in the notes and then you would see a final report that simply reported the presumptive positive." "And of the five cases that were categorised by you all as the most serious of all the cases you looked at, who was the agent on each of those cases?" "Special Agent Deaver." "Were those the only instances where you found that agent Deaver had failed to put down what his lab notes reflected?" " No, I believe the final total was 34." " 34 cases?" " That's correct." "Thank you very much." "Please answer whatever questions the DA may have." "I appreciate it." "I got this group of French people who are following me around with a camera." "I think they want to film inside there." " I don't know if you're..." " If it's OK with you it's OK with me." " It's OK with me." " Oh, you've come to share lunch with me!" " No!" " You were going to bring your own." "No, no, I'm not sharing anything with you." "Why are you hobbling around like you're 80 years old?" " Jeez, 80?" "!" " 90." " How about 200?" " Ask them what I looked like yesterday." " Why, what's going on?" "Well, I'm hardly the Princess and the Pea here." " You know, the story of the Princess and the Pea?" " Yes." "I've been in prison for eight years." "We don't have orthopaedic mattresses or anything." " They don't have the foam?" " No, it's pretty terrible." "I'm so used to prison luxury conditions, you see, that coming to the jail, sleeping on cold concrete - maybe that's it." "Maybe that's it." "It's sort of like going from the Westin with their Heavenly beds to Motel 6." "So, she is not calling Deaver." "She is not calling any experts." "Uh, she's going to call a couple of witnesses." "I think she's going to try to get into evidence that Deborah Radisch thought it was a homicide, but neither of those things has any bearing on it." " As you say, that's for a retrial." " Right, right." "I don't want to get too far out ahead of ourselves here, but if we get a new trial, then the question becomes, can they even retry you, given the fact that Deaver was all over that scene?" "I mean, ALL over the scene, and remember the photo glitches and him smelling the wine and..." "Yes, he's the one that did that!" " All of it." "He did all of it!" " Such bullshit." "He did all of it." "Get a good close-up of him." "THEY CHUCKLE" "Oh, another close-up right there." "How the man got away with it, for as long as he did, that's really a crime, because you wonder how many other cases there are - not high-profile cases - but other cases in which the man probably testified." "He made the difference of sending them either to prison or getting them much more time." "And I just cannot even imagine that anybody would do that, but he's done it for, gosh, over 20 years." "In September 2007, Dr Turner killed his wife Jennifer Turner and several months after the killing," "Dr Turner was indicted by the Davie County Grand Jury for first-degree murder." "What does Dr Turner say had happened between him and his wife?" "Well, the killing occurred in an outbuilding of the property that Dr Turner and his wife had shared until they became separated about 18 months before the killing." "Inside the building, there were tons of stuff just lying all around." "One of the things that was lying around was a large seven-foot " "I mean, for lack of a better term" " Viking spear that had about a 16-inch blade on the end of it and Mrs Turner picked up the spear and attacked him with it, driving it through his leg near his groin, through and through twice and stabbing it on his arm." "At that point in time, he went into his pocket." "He had a pocket knife with him and he used the pocket knife to defend himself and in doing so, inflicted the wounds that killed her." "Did he in fact have wounds on his leg that were consistent with what he had said happened?" "Yes, he lost about a quarter of his blood volume and one of those wounds was about 1.5 centimetres from his femoral artery, which they also concluded would have killed him if it had hit him." "I'm going to show you what has been marked as exhibit 27." "What was the initial opinion that Agent Thomas had with regard to the shirt that Dr Turner had been wearing?" "Uh, this transfer bloodstain pattern was consistent with a bloody hand being wiped on the surface of the shirt." "What does the second report say?" "It says, "it is consistent with a pointed object," ""consistent with a knife being wiped on the surface of the shirt."" "Was there any indication in that second report that there had been a significant change?" "No, there wasn't." "What special agent Thomas testified about is that the SBI and Special Agent Deaver, who was working with him, had been presented with a new scenario." "That, in essence, he had inflicted those wounds on himself and entirely staged the scene." "Following that, they, when looking at the shirt, could it possibly have been because someone was wiping a knife off on the shirt?" "Was that what he got out of that meeting that Agent Deaver attended?" "Yes." "Then it says, "I'm going to meet with Duane" " "to do the actual reconstruction."" " Yes." " Who's filming this?" " Special Agent Deaver." " He's present there?" "He's filming it, yes." "I think what they were trying to do is put blood on just the outside layers of the knife in the hopes that it would somehow duplicate the initial stain, even though he didn't know a scenario where that would occur in actual real life," "where you only have blood on the absolute edges of a knife." "Nice good curve." "Turn your wrist in." "Even better, yeah." "'All right then, you might get some just lightly on the fingers' and just kinda... up, up." "'Beautiful." "That's a wrap, baby.'" "Not in any effort to recreate any scenario of what actually happened that night, but just to create a stain that might look like another stain, that might refute what our experts said about what that stain was." "'There's a bloodstain expert, Stewart James.'" "He's universally regarded as one of the handful of top two or three experts in this field." "He takes the video of the Kirk Turner blood experiments where Gerald Thomas wipes the shirt and Duane Deaver is filming it and he shows this video at professional conferences, both in the United States and abroad." "The reaction in the community of bloodstain pattern analysis, he says, is shock, that everyone just looks at these experiments and says, "That is a bunch of malarkey."" "It's sort of what's happening in Mike Peterson's motion for appropriate relief right now." "You can sort of know all of these anecdotal things and you can experience individual cases like we did with Dr Turner and other cases, but once you see all of those things synthesised and brought together and woven into the same tapestry, it's pretty devastating" "to see what can pass for science and justice in a courtroom." "Thanks, I appreciate it." "Am I going to get a lunch today, deputy?" "We're working on it." "This woman stabbed him with a spear and then he cut her throat." "You know, this is not a good marriage here, but anyway..." "But then when I read that Duane Deaver believed that the man had taken a spear and put it through his leg," "I mean, it just boggles the mind, that anybody would come up with that." "I got an orange." "Oh!" "You ought to feel how cool this sandwich is." "Just feel how cold that is." "Mrs Sutton, have you been qualified as an expert witness in the field of bloodstain pattern analysis?" "Yes sir, I have." "I want to show you what Mr Deaver testified to at Mr Peterson's trial." "I'm gonna ask of you to describe the types of experiments that you used and what the results were, generally." "Test 1 was to place a source of blood a certain distance above a horizontal or above the ground and impact it with test shoes on and to take a look at those spatters to determine if they were comparable to what I found on the real shoes." "The wearer of these shoes - these shoes were actually directly below the source of blood, which in my opinion is the back of the head of the victim when it was impacted." "Is there anything about these experiments that you saw that in any way supports Mr Deaver's opinion?" "No." "The experiment won't show that at all." "What the experiment shows is that if you impact a sponge, it'll create spatter." "That's a given in my field." "That's a recreation." "That's trying to make a set of circumstances and get a desired outcome." "It's not what I would classify as an experiment." "'The opinion is that these pants are consistent with impact spatters 'that result from a forceful impact' and that the individual wearing these pants at the time of that impact was in close proximity to the source of blood when it was impacted." "Was that experiment that you just saw acceptable within the bounds of bloodstain pattern analysis?" "No." "The first thing that really struck me was as soon as he stepped into the stairway he pulled the short leg open." "That's not fair." "If the question is, can I take a step into the stairwell, hit somebody, and get spatter back into my shorts, then I have to do it with as natural a motion as possible." "One thing I did notice, the target was placed more towards the centre of the landing as opposed to back where the area of origin was actually calculated." "And of course, that's so that you can have one leg up." "That certainly could be one explanation, sure." "If it was back further, somebody would be standing on the landing." "They wouldn't have their leg up, would they?" "I agree with that and it would also be difficult to hit that sponge." "Are the experiments that you used consistent with what others in the field use to conduct analysis of bloodstain patterns?" "Yes, they are." "Is it consistent with the methodology that you learned" " 15, 16 years ago?" " Yes, it is." " Is that true?" " No, sir." "Is his methodology, as you saw in these experiments, what others who are competent in the field of bloodstain analysis use to analyse crime scenes?" "No, sir." "Happy birthday." "I'm glad you were able to finally get here." "Can't shake hands." "Remain seated, come to order, court is back in session." "Could you please state your name and spell your last name for the court reporter, please?" "Ronald Thomas Guerette." "G-U-E-R-E-T-T-E." "Before becoming a private investigator, what was your profession?" "I was a police officer in Colorado for a couple years." "Then I was a police officer in Charlotte for about ten years." "When did you first get involved in the case" "State vs Michael Peterson?" "About a week after December the 9th." "Of what year?" " Umm, ten years ago." " 2001?" " 2001." "In connection with this hearing, did you review all of the discovery that was provided by the state of North Carolina in response to the orders" " that were issued by Judge Hudson?" " I did." "Well over 100,000 pages, many, many CDs, and disks, and..." " And you reviewed all of that?" " Unfortunately." "All right." "Did you review some reports that Duane Deaver" " either authored or was mentioned in?" " Yes, sir." "On how many cases of bloodstain pattern analysis or evaluations have you actually worked?" "I don't know for sure, but it would be somewhere around 200 that I have written reports on myself." "Now, that doesn't include the number of cases that I have looked at as part of my training." "And I continue to provide help to others who are in training." "I help them with their cases and I wouldn't necessarily write a report on that." "Were you able to compare the results of your analysis of the reports that he wrote with his testimony?" "Yes, I was." "How many cases were there in total in which Agent Deaver just observed bloodstains, either at the scene, at the SBI laboratory," " or by looking at photos?" " Only 54." "In how many of those cases did Agent Deaver provide" " a bloodstain pattern analysis opinion?" " 36." "In how many of those cases did Agent Deaver actually go to the scene" " of an event?" " Well, he went to 17 different scenes between 1987 and 2003." "How many cases were there in which Agent Deaver performed tests or experiments before the Peterson case?" "Three." "Only three." "What was the date of the last experiment that Agent Deaver conducted on his own before the Peterson case?" "Back in 1991. 11 years before." "How many cases were there in which Agent Deaver, before the Peterson case, found a precise point of impact?" "Zero." "I think Agent Deaver also gave some testimony about falls and investigating falls, correct?" "That is correct... and stairs." "Have you ever analysed bloodstain evidence from a situation that was known to be a fall?" "Well... yes, I have been to, probably, about 15 times where it was reported that a fall had occurred." "Probably five or six of those times I was in agreement that a fall was involved." "The rest of the those, I was not in agreement that a fall was involved or created the spatters, the patterns, that were seen there." "Mr Guerette, how many of Agent Deaver's cases did you find in which he had gone to the scene of a fall to analyse it in some way?" "Well, I checked every word on every page in these documents and the word "falls" never occurred." " That's all I have, your honour." "Thank you." " You can come down." "Hey!" "Good to see - oh!" "Look at those teeth!" "So are you alive, or what?" "Are you alive?" "You've been hobbling around all day." "Let's see you move!" " It looks like it's going well, really well." " It really is." "Yeah, it really is." "I mean, you never know, of course, but I would think he'll rule in my favour." "Freaking... that would be amazing, right?" "No!" "it's supposed to be the way it's supposed to be." " Either way, it's amazing." " Well, here it is!" "So with any kind of luck I'll be out of here, you know... soon." "Obviously that's what we're all hoping for," " but it would be so amazing for that to happen." " I know." "I know." "Yesterday, there were around 217 articles" " from local papers to the Washington Post." " On what?" "And they're just basically talking about how all the experts are discrediting Deaver." "But he really did convict me with his points of origin and "the head had to be right here, and so therefore," ""if the head's right here, all the blood must have hit out there."" " And that's just bullshit." " Well, it's so convincing, right?" "For him to get so specific and say that it happened here, there," " and there." " Oh yeah, there's no question." "And the thing with the shorts and the tennis shoes and what David picked up and I had missed also the second time was the first-degree murder charge premeditation only came because of Deaver." "Enough about me." "We've all seen me." "I'm sick of me." "Tell me about you, kid." "Man, my life has changed night and day." "I've got this best friend, this girl named Jasmine," " and she's lived there for..." " I'm going to have to come closer." " I can't hear." " Yeah so, you want to stand up?" " You can stand up." " Sit down." " They're making too much damn noise." "Can't you hear that shit down there?" "It's buffered, it's buffered." "It's coming in my ear." "What the fuck are they doing?" "Well, when am I going to become a grandfather again?" "I'm working on it - very hard, I'll have you know." " I'm working on it, hard." " Good!" " Yessir." " Time's up, sir." "OK." "I got to go." "OK." "I love you very much, Dad, and put 'er there." "I love you and I'm so glad to see you again." "I'll see you, I'll see you, all right." "Not to jump the gun in any way, but we wanna try to be prepared, just in case this goes our way." " Which I don't know is going to happen." " I understand." "I understand." "But anyway, so, we've put together about 300,000 worth of property - actually a little bit more than that, but enough property that will secure a 300,000 bond." "Kerry has checked into electronic monitoring," "Joan Miner has agreed to allow you to stay there" " for as long as you need to." " All right." "And I need to talk with her to ask her if she's also willing to be a third party custodian, which simply means, if you don't come home one night, not only would the monitor go off," "but she would call the sheriff and say, "Hey, he's not here."" " All right?" " What do you think?" "Seriously?" "I think the same thing I thought before the verdict came in back then." " OK." "All right." " I mean, what can I say?" "And..." "We'll finish it today." " OK." " All right." "Hang in there." " Goodbye." " Thank you, David." "I feel like I'm coming out the other side of a really dark tunnel that I've been in with regard to this case, and it's different." "I don't think anything will ever heal." "What I felt when that jury came back in October of 2003... ..it was as devastating a moment as I've ever had professionally." "So that won't heal." "That won't go away." "But I do feel like a weight has sort of been lifted a little bit, if we get a new trial." "If we don't get a new trial, I will feel crushed all over again." "So there's a part of me that's very scared about what's going to happen, because I don't want to be crushed again." "The state and this honourable court, please be seated." "Judge Hudson, what do we know now that we didn't and couldn't have known in 2003?" "We know Duane Deaver misled the court and the jury about his training and experience." "That he misled the court and the jury about points of impact, that he misled the court and the jury about the experiments." "That he had a pattern and practice of having a strong bias for the state, writing misleading reports and giving misleading testimony." "You had indicated that you had worked 200 cases and that you had been involved in roughly 500 cases." "Yeah, that was an estimate." "Let's give Agent Deaver the benefit of the doubt and just put aside the 300 he claimed he did, which there's no reports for." "What about the 200 he claimed he did reports for?" "That was a lie." "There's no nicer way to say it." "He lied." "He only went to 17 scenes total and none of those involved a fall." "Not a single one." "I have no doubt that a source of blood was out there and that it was impacted creating those and that they are not on a surface." "Mr Deaver brings a sort of new meaning to the phrase "often wrong, but never in doubt."" "He testified that way, as the court I'm sure will remember, all the way through this trial." "On and on and on." "We didn't know at the time that he had left out of all his lab reports negative confirmatory results." "And the reason he didn't put those negative confirmatory tests in was because he didn't want the defence to have it, because they might "confuse" the jury by pointing out the truth." "He wasn't just an expert." "He actually became an advocate for the guilt of the people whose cases he worked on." "He did it in Mr Peterson's case, and we know he did it in Greg Taylor's case back in 1991." "Not only does he do testing that's not accepted by anyone in the field, but then with regard to one of the critical opinions that he gives, he bases it entirely on this testing, and testifies to the jury that that's what proves" "Michael Peterson was there in the stairway, hitting Kathleen." "You relied on these experiments in reaching your opinions, did you not?" "Yes, I did." "As a matter of fact there were several opinions that you've testified to in front of this jury that you wouldn't have testified to without those experiments." "Correct?" "Uh, yes." "For example, your opinion about the cause of the spatter inside of Mr Peterson's shorts." "That was an opinion you wouldn't have given without the experiments, right?" "Yes." "It all boils back to his ridiculous experiment, and the little victory dance that Susie Barker did when he finally was able to get it into his shorts." "That's the critical testimony that basically says it's a beating and Michael Peterson committed it." "And there is no other evidence in this trial," "Deborah Radisch included, who could ever say it was Michael Peterson." "It's not just new evidence, your honour, it violates" "Mr Peterson's constitutional right to due process." "You have a right not to be tried with fabricated evidence and that's what happened in this case." "I'm therefore going to ask the court at this time, as hard as that is, given the length of this trial, to grant Michael Peterson a trial at which the evidence can be presented in a fair way," "in an unbiased way, and then let a jury of 12 sort it out." "Thank you, Your Honour." "One of the most important things about the criminal justice system is the verdict of the jury." "I would ask the court by looking at the record, what is the newly discovered evidence?" "There is no newly discovered evidence." "The same old, same old, same old thing." "The defendant must show this court that had they gotten all this information, that the jury would have decided differently." "The blood spatter, the blood patterns, the wiping of the blood off the wall, blood drops, spatter on shoes, spatter inside of pants." "When you look at the injuries to her head, when you look at how she laid in that stairwell, when you look at the sweatpants with a footprint on the back of her leg and when the medical examiner testified, based on her training and experience, and now" "she's a chief medical examiner, that this was not an accident." "How in the world would a jury find it different, because Mr Deaver, a reasonable doubt, is reason based on common, everyday sense." "It does not take a rocket scientist to look at Kathleen Peterson, the back of her head, the blood every which way, way up in the air, on the ceiling and say that that was an accident?" "Judge, I'd ask that you follow the outline of North Carolina Supreme Court and North Carolina Court of Appeals and uphold this righteous verdict." "Thank you, Your Honour." "All right." "Has Mr Peterson proven that Duane Deaver misled the court into allowing him to express certain opinions that you put up on the board?" "The answer to that question is yes." "Has Peterson proven that Duane Deaver misled the jury about the validity of certain of his arguments?" "The answer to that question is yes." "Was Deaver's false and misleading testimony material?" "The answer to that question is yes." "Is a new trial required for newly discovered evidence, due process violations, and for perjured testimony?" "The answer to those questions is yes." "It will be the court's order that Mr Peterson receive a new trial." " About time, ain't it?" " It's fine." " Thank you." "What do you mean "now"?" "It's impossible to say what happened, but I know my father didn't kill Kathleen." "I loved Kathleen more than anything, but he didn't do it." "He told me and I know it." "I believe that in my heart." "Thanks." " Honest to God, thank you so much." " You're welcome." " I appreciate it." "This was fantastic." "I'll be crying a while." " Well, Michael." " That was quick." "I did not believe that." "You know I told you when I went to visit you the first time after the" " verdict how devastated I was by that." " I know." "You also told me it might be harder on you than me and I told you, "Wait a minute, you're leaving in your goddamn BMW and I'm going back..."" "I understand, but having said that, this has weighed on me for eight years." "I know it has." "I'm so happy." "Jesus Christ." "Eight years." "I told your kids, "I'm getting tired of this." "He gets convicted and you guys cry." "He gets a new trial and you guys still cry."" "We're a very emotional family." "Now my goal is to walk you out of this courthouse this afternoon." "We'll see if we can do that." "We'll try." "Oh god, that would be wonderful." "We might have to carry you, but we'll do it." "No, I'm much better now." "I suspect that some of that was just stress." "Oh, do you think?" "What, my high blood pressure?" "Yeah." "OK." "All right." "Thank you." "Thank you." "All right, you can relax now." "Enjoy your gourmet lunch." " Let's see." " Oh, fuck it." "All right." "We'll see you at 2:30." "OK?" "Thank you, David." "And you too, Ron." "I have kept everything inside me for years, and years, and years." "I think I could go on a roll now." "And I could cry about Kathleen, and cry about my mother, cry about my father." "I could cry about Margaret and Martha, Clay and Todd." "Oh, all the things we've all gone through and suffered." "It was just this ocean of tears inside me, and... oh." "HE EXHALES" "I don't know, I just want to breathe." "We went to the gas station today, and Margaret and Martha were on the front page of the newspaper, right, but in a good way this time." "So we had Margaret hold up the newspaper in the middle of a public location." "Like, come on, Margaret, take a photo!" "Something we would have never done before." "There were a number of people who came up, like the photographer, that's like, "I work for a newspaper," "I'm not allowed to have an opinion, but I'm really happy for you!"" "So many times!" "Just walking around Durham, it's like you feel that label of Peterson over your head." "You're concerned that people look at you a certain way, but like for the first time I was like standing up, walking around," "I was like, "Peterson, yeah!"" "It feels good to be in Durham now." "We went to the cemetery today." "It was beautiful." "Yeah, it was gorgeous, the beautiful tree, the roses." "The rose bush, that's great!" "It was really different this time." "I mean, it was sad, but it was also amazing." "Yeah, to have that... ..because it's so fresh, the memory of her death and the funeral, but to go there with this new feeling was pretty remarkable." "Yeah." " Nine-86." " Nine-86." "This one is shut right here." " It might be in that bag." " I've got you." "And a shoe lace for the tennis shoes." " Shoe laces are in the bag over there." " OK." "I've waited over eight years, 2,988 days, as a matter of fact, and I counted, for the opportunity to have a retrial." "I want to thank Judge Hudson for giving me that opportunity so that" "I can vindicate myself and prove my innocence in a fair trial this time." "I want to thank all the people who have supported me from all over the world." "It's impossible for me to express my gratitude." "What I want to do now though is to spend time with my family, and with my children, and certainly, at a later time," "I'd be happy to talk with everybody and share more." "Thank you very, very much." "Mr Peterson, what's the first thing you plan to do tonight?" "So I'm interested in how much buzzing this, erm...?" "It'll keep you up all night." "I can honestly say I tried it and the only time it buzzed, the transmitter buzzed when I needed to charge it," " because I forgot to plug it in." " Oh, OK." "Mr Peterson, this paperwork pretty much says that this is electronic monitoring equipment that belongs to Michael King's company," "Reliant Monitoring." "We will make you a copy and make sure..." " What is today?" "12/15?" " Today is 12/15." "I'll be able to finally become a Buddhist!" " Spoiled already!" " Oh, he's a momma's boy." " All right!" "We'll change that." "We'll change that." "You guys both ended up momma's boys too, right?" "Only this guy right here." " Well, champagne." " Some champagne." "I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what you all have done, and how long you have fought and stayed by my side." "So, to you!" "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Thank you, guys." "Thank you." "Thank you, and then a second toast, to the family " "Margaret, Martha, Clay, everybody else." "You guys just took this so well." "You were in there." "You were suffering." "But there's a lot of emotional anguish and mental anguish that we had too." "You guys were just incredible, your emotional spirits never wavered, so, cheers to you, guys." " La familia!" " La familia!" " Hear, hear!" "Sante!" " Cin cin!" " Sante!" " Sante!" "I can't share my experience for the last eight years with anybody." "They wouldn't understand it." "They have no way of knowing what that means." "I could say, "Well, I was locked away for eight years and I didn't have any privacy or any freedom." "I was in prison for eight years."" "People could say, "Oh, you were in prison for eight years, that must have been terrible!"" "Yeah, it was, but you have no real understanding of that, and I can't tell you that." "No matter what I tell you can make you understand and realize that, and so therefore your world is very different from everybody else's world." "I wanted to come back to who I was, but I can't, so I'm still working about me in this world out there." "Then with the realization also," ""Oh, don't ever forget, Mike, they're trying to send you back there."" ""They still think that you're guilty, many of them." "They want you to go back there for the rest of your life." "They want you to die in prison."" "So while you're trying to move along, always on your shoulder is this heavy burden or, in my case, on my foot is a monitoring device." " David!" " How are you, sir?" " Good." "Fine, fine, fine." "Have you shrunk a little?" "I'm still taller than you are," "I don't care how much I've goddamn shrank!" " You look better than the last time I saw you." " Well, no kidding." "If I was any worse, I'd be out there in Maplewood!" "Nothing much is going to happen in your case, no matter what, for the rest of this year." "After that, depending on what the Attorney General's office decides, what the Court of Appeals decides, we could be back putting it on the docket for trial sometime next year." "Then of course, the question becomes, do you want to retry this case?" "Or do you want to see if some sort of a resolution can be negotiated, and there's lot's of different ways to do that." "There's a no-contest plea, where you simply are saying," ""I'm not going to contest this"." "There's an Alford plea where you basically say, "I'm pleading guilty, but I'm not pleading guilty because I'm guilty, I'm pleading guilty because I don't want to go through another trial."" "I know guys in prison who have taken an Alford Plea and said, basically, "Fuck it." "I don't want to go on any further." "Let's end this damn thing right now."" "But what that means is, you're guilty." " I mean, on the record, you're guilty." " On the record, you're guilty." "Is there any way to do it, "I'm not guilty," "I don't care about any money, I don't care about whatever."" "I mean, I'm going to go on with what you say on this." "Could the DA decide that he's just going to drop it?" "He could, but I don't think he's going to do that." "So, realistically speaking, the only three options are a no-contest plea, Alford plea, or go to trial." "Even going to trial doesn't guarantee innocence." "Oh, no, but it gives me an option." "The other two, there's no option." "You're basically guilty." "You see the whole thing is, I didn't do it, so why would I even do this?" "I think we don't need to discuss that today." "I mean, this isn't going to be until maybe the middle of next year?" " At least." " At least?" " Nothing's going to happen quickly here." "Jesus." "OK." "All right." "I can remember when I was a very young man," "I said, "I'm going to live a life with as few regrets as possible."" "And now I'm getting to be a pretty old man." "And I look back and, oh, Lord, do I have some regrets." "I wish I'd done that differently." "I wish I hadn't done that." "Yes, it's filled with regrets." "But in the balance, I've got these wonderful children." "I had a wonderful relationship with Kathleen." "I was loved and I loved." "And I still do." "And I guess that's about the best you can say about a person." "Their capacity to love, and mine is infinite." "Honestly, it gets bigger all the time." "I can look at my children and think, "Yeah, they love me."" "What else do you want?" " Did you plant the roses?" " No, I didn't." " I can get this one." " OK." "Here." "Ten years later." "I know." "I know." "Still hurts." "It'll always hurt." "It'll never go away, ever." "No, it never, never goes away." "You never forget." "Always pain, always pain." "Come on, dear, let's go." "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd"