This week, new HBO Max and Sky exclusive drama series The Staircase got underway, starring A-list actors Colin Firth and Toni Collette in the lead roles of Michael and Kathleen Peterson, respectively.
Michael, a celebrated and published author, was accused and then convicted of murdering his second wife Kathleen, after she was found dead at the bottom of their staircase in 2003. The story only got stranger when authorities discovered that a friend of his first wife was also found dead at the bottom of her stairs, after Peterson had taken her home. He was the last person to see her alive.
Peterson was originally convicted of Kathleen's murder in 2003, but was granted a new trial after eight years, when a judge ruled a critical prosecution witness had given misleading testimony.
Prosecution suggested that Michael had flown into a fit of rage at Kathleen, after she discovered over 2,000 explicit images of other men on his computer, as well as email conversations with a young male escort. Michael’s defence said that his wife was actually accepting of his bisexuality and, pointed to the blow poke - that he was accused of hitting her with - saying it had no damage or remnants of blood on it.
Though a request for the second trial to be dismissed was refused in November 2016, a resolution was negotiated by Peterson's lawyer David Rudolf and the Durham County District Attorney, which saw Peterson enter an Alford plea in February 2017.
This meant that a guilty plea for the voluntary manslaughter of Kathleen was entered because sufficient evidence existed to make a conviction, but the defendant - in this case Peterson - was allowed to maintain his assertion of innocence.
Peterson was sentenced this time to the maximum of 86 months in prison, with credit for time previously served and so, because he had already been behind bars for just over 98 months, he did not have to return to prison.
Peterson now lives in Durham, North Carolina, in a house different to the one in which Kathleen died. Speaking at CrimeCon in New Orleans, his attorney Rudolf said that Peterson is now, perhaps thankfully, "in a ground floor apartment with no stairs", joking it "was a really important accommodation”.
He had been living with first wife Patricia 'Patty' Peterson following his release, until her death from a heart attack in 2021. Despite being divorced, the two had always remained friends and Patty had always asserted her belief that her ex-husband was innocent of all crimes he was accused of.
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Tagged in Colin Firth Toni Collette True Crime