All language subtitles for The Staircase - Chapter 4 - A Prosecution Trickery

Boy, is that ever incendiary, right?

Jesus Christ.

Yes, it is.

That's just an outrage.

That's just a fucking outrage.

Hey, how are you?
Er, we just got the autopsy report.

Give me your fax number
so I can fax it to you.

Yes, ma'am.

Right.

8722. I'll fax it right now
and then, er...

I'll call you back.

Oh, Jesus!

Me again.

I'm going to fax...uh,
we just got the autopsy report.

Can I fax it to you?
Are you at your office?

I have to go back to court at 2.30,

and the press is trying
to unseal this thing,

so I need to talk with you some
before 2.30.

OK. I'll get it to you right away.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Hey. I got this autopsy
on this Germany thing.

As soon as you take a look at it,
would you call me?

Well, they concluded these injuries
were as a result

of a homicidal attack, so I need
for you to take a look at this.

MUTTERING

I mean, I've read... How many
autopsies we read? Never seen that.

Never.

Hi, is John around, please?
Thank you.

Dave Rudolf.

I've got a question for you.

I've read 260 autopsies
from blunt trauma to the head

and never once did I see
any of your people say,

"The inflicted trauma is clearly
from a homicidal assault."

Um...

All right, well, could you
call me back after you get done?

Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks.

Outrageous.

I just know that, um,
my mom died in '85.

Think it was the winter of '85,
and, um...

..she...she...

I know that she died
of a brain haemorrhage.

She had been having
many headaches before.

I mean, there's people...
many people have said this,

that 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...

Mike and Patty, I guess,
told her to go

and she basically died

before she even hit
the bottom of the stairs

and I-I think it's interesting,
you know,

that they both were found
at the bottom of the stairs,

but at the same time,

the two things they had in common
besides being my mothers were

that Dad loved them both
very, very, very much,

and he would have never,
ever hurt either of them,

so I think that's what they have in
common more than anything malicious.

So...

The autopsy report released
this afternoon

details how this
woman died more than a decade ago.

The Ratliff autopsy report says
her fatal wounds appear to be

the result of several blows
to the head,

injuries that happened
while Ratliff was still alive.

The conclusion - those injuries
came from a homicidal assault.

That's inflammatory.
That's not a doctor...

That's what a jury determines.

Now the Peterson defence team

hopes this report will not prejudice
a potential jury.

All right,
it gets curioser and curioser.

You can read the entire
autopsy report on our website

at abc11tv.com.

I've had one of my biggest fuckings
in court ever.

The judge unsealed all this stuff,

you know, this new autopsy.

The headlines tonight are,
"Homicidal Assault".

Just outrageous.

Anyway, I think I'm going to need
to call these people

as witnesses on Wednesday,
and I think I'm going to need

your presence here
to help me cross-examine them.

Yeah, and we're going to have...
you know, I'm going to have

to cross-examine them pretty
vigorously, I think, so... Yes.

Yes, I want you to be there
when he testifies

so that we can cross-examine him.

All right?

Well, if this is admitted
the way it stands,

the one we got from the medical
examiner, will that hurt your case?

Well, keep in mind it's not...
This doesn't get admitted.

Somebody's going to have to get up
on the witness stand and testify,

and that's really the unfairness
of this current procedure -

what gets released
to the public right now

is simply a one-sided report
that we haven't had

a chance to ask any questions about,

and I think that's part of the
problem here is that all that

gets put into the news media is,
you know,

a fairly inflammatory statement
that is completely unnecessary

to the autopsy findings, and were
just sort of gratuitous, and,

you know, I don't blame you guys.

It was put in there because

that's exactly what you guys
would gravitate to.

Those aren't really lined up the
way... They're not anything like...

They are, interestingly enough,
mainly curved in some way.

I don't know
the significance of that.

This one, this one, this one,
curved...

This is kind of curved with a split.
Kathleen's or...

It's almost like something...

I don't know what caused
this curvature, for example.

Is that indicative of something?

Can only Kathleen...? Let's get
her... Let's get her autopsy.

That... That's the same?

The truth is,
these are spread out more.

You've got the top of the head,

you've got the hair,
you've got the left...

Oh, yeah, you've also got bruising
on the back of the neck,

which would be indicative of...

Falling. Falling, right.

The top... How do you bang someone
in the top of the head? What?

You know, this is supposed
to be a signature thing.

You know, there's supposed to be
some way in which these are similar.

How does one...

Other than the fact

that they're both found
at the bottom of stairs...

You get a false impression,
I think a misleading impression...

Yeah, I was surprised

when I saw the photographs
how close together they were.

Those look like pattern injuries
or crescent-shaped things

from some sort of instrument.

When you look at the photographs,
I don't get that impression at all.

No, no, not at all.

Yeah, looking at the sketch, this...
it doesn't work for me.

I mean, the pictures,
that's the work of...

The sketch is just simply that,

but I don't think they truly reflect
very well what is in these pictures.

Here. The correspondence...

I mean, if that's what they're
relying on to reconstruct

and to draw conclusions on...
this is very misleading.

The diagram is very misleading.
Cos of...

These look like they're linear,
linear and simple.

These are not simple.

They're very complex,
and when you do this sort of thing,

what sort of impacts produce
scalp lacerations like that?

Yeah. Probably not blows. I mean,
what instrument would do that?

Ah, I see.

These are more characteristic of
impacts where the skin just splits.

Right.

Well, the hearing tomorrow,
on Ratliff,

I think is probably
the most important hearing,

may very well be
the most important day in court

that we have in this entire case.

I think that the evidence
about the death in Germany,

if it comes in,

will have a substantial impact
even subconsciously

on how the jurors
evaluate the evidence in this case,

even though there's not
a shred of evidence that Michael

had anything to do with
Elizabeth Ratliff's death.

The mere fact that it comes
in evidence will have an impact,

so my view is that
if we win the motion tomorrow

and keep the Ratliff evidence out,
because it's not relevant,

this is not a technicality...

Because it's not relevant

and because the state
can't show that it's relevant,

we will have a very good chance
of winning this trial,

because the rest of the evidence,
I think, is pretty minimal.

Well, what we've done is
we've subpoenaed their witnesses,

some of the doctors
who have done the autopsies,

and we want to put them on the stand
and force them to do more

than just give
their bare conclusions.

Their reports are very bare bones.

What we want to do is we want
to get them on the stand and be able

to ask them the hard questions that
they don't address in their reports

to show that the basis of
their conclusions is simply flawed.

This is the kind of evidence
that can really prejudice and taint

a trial unfairly.

It's the kind of evidence

that courts have traditionally said
you just don't let in.

In my opinion, the '85 death...

If the state try to introduce
evidence of that in the court,

it could come in any number of ways

for which I will listen
to arguments about...

Has the state filed

a motion to have the court consider
Miss Ratliff's death?

We are not a proponent
of that evidence at this point,

and will not be until the court
actually is involved in this trial

and begins hearing evidence
of all these matters.

Judge, um...two weeks ago, or
three weeks ago, you sat there

and agreed that this was an issue,
particularly Ratliff...

It is an issue.

Well, that has to be decided

before jury selection
for very good reasons.

I'm not aware of any law that...

that the court can direct the state
to do it.

No, what the court can...
I mean, I can...I can...

I'm not sure there's
a North Carolina state law

that the court can order

the state to do something. I don't
think you can order them to do that.

What you can do is say, "If you
don't file the notice and have

"the hearing today, you're not going
to be allowed to introduce

"that evidence, because
it's prejudicial to the defence."

Let's just look at this
from a practical perspective.

If I don't know whether or not
that's coming in.

I've got to assume it is.

And therefore I'm going to spend
lots of time in opening statement

talking to the jurors about that,
finding out what they think

and talking about the facts
and all of that stuff.

So now all of a sudden,
Mr Hardin says, "Judge, I'm sorry,

"we're not going to introduce,"
right?

Now, are you going to instruct
the jury to disregard everything

that I said in my opening statement?

How is that...

How are you going to instruct them
to disregard what I said and have me

maintain my credibility with a jury
that is deciding my client's life?

I believe, frankly, it would be
ineffective assistance to counsel

for him not to deal with it,

whether the evidence
is admissible or not,

because it's out there, the news
media has spent three or four days

using the same footage
of the exhumation down in Texas.

It's still going on
up until this morning,

which raises another question
about all of these interviews that

Mr Rudolf likes to give
to the media about the evidence.

My client's wanted this trial
to proceed for a long time.

The DA delayed that exhumation
for months and months and months.

Now, two weeks before, or three
weeks before trial, he decides

to go ahead with an exhumation,
and that is simply unfair.

He did it intentionally, he did it
knowingly. He stands here

and talks sanctimoniously about
how I'm talking to the press

in response to a
medical examiner's report...

I knew you would bring that up.
Yeah...

..that gratuitously uses the term
"homicidal attack", or "assault".

And I'm supposed to sit back
and allow my client to be prejudiced

by that and buy this show
that he's put together...

..and just sit back and do nothing?

The court declines Mr Rudolf
and his discretion to determine

the admissibility of the death
of Miss Ratliff...

..today,

and pre-trial, court in its
discretion

will rule on its
admissibility when proffered

by the state of North Carolina as
evidence of this particular case.

You know, I subpoenaed
all three medical examiners

and was prepared to cross-examine
all of them. Today. Today!

So why is it that it's OK for them

to write reports that have
conclusions like "homicidal assault"

and yet not have to get up
on a witness stand today?

What is his sexual preference?

What is whose sexual preference,
Mr Hardin's? The client's.

Not Mr Hardin's! Oh, I don't know
what Mr Hardin's is. You know...

Would you really expect...
What's your sexual... Come on!

No, your guy's on trial - I'm not.

Well, we can change that.

No, I'm not going to answer
those kind of questions. OK.

INAUDIBLE

Well, wherever's...

Get me a Diet Coke...

BARKING

Where the hell's your silverware?

Er, on the right,
in the top...second drawer.

I keep the pans and the other stuff
in the top drawer.

INAUDIBLE

There is no doubt in my mind
that those two guys knew exactly

what was going to happen
before that hearing started.

I mean, the little speech
that Orlando did at the beginning,

you know, Hardin... He didn't say to
Hardin, "What are you talking about?

"We're here for a hearing!"

You know? Er...

"What do you mean, you don't think
we ought to go forward?

"I mean, on Monday we sat here
for three...all day talking about

"whether this hearing
should be closed or not -

"you didn't say anything then!"

I just don't understand it. I mean,
what's in it for Judge Hudson...?

There's got to be
a political pay-off somewhere.

That's all I can say.

I don't know what it is,
but there's something in it for him.

No, I mean, do you have
any doubt that this was...?

INAUDIBLE
You ask me, it's been scripted.

It was just choreographed. It was
just completely choreographed.

I've been in front of lots of judges
with lots of prosecutors

in lots of situations,
and I've got to tell you,

I have never, ever seen something
like that before. Never.

I don't think David
and I don't think Tom, you know,

believe me, or anybody from
the beginning, but when I said,

this isn't Chapel Hill, this isn't
Charlotte...this is Durham.

It's unique, it's particular,
it's dirty, it's corrupt,

it's small, you know,

I don't think anybody
knows this town better than I do,

and I... It's what
I've believed for years,

and I told you guys from
the beginning that this is it.

I've had a personal relationship
with Orlando for years, and it never

got through to me that it could
affect him personally in that way.

Yeah, but...
I just find him disgusting.

So...the Ratliff stuff
is coming in evidence.

The gay stuff is coming in evidence.
Sure. All right?

So we've got to deal with it,
no matter what.

You can almost turn this
into a challenge to the DA!

We don't know if it's coming or not.
Do we think it's a joke?

But these are the reasons why,
if they let you get into that.

If he brings it in,
we'll talk about it then,

then when it doesn't come in,
you look like a hero.

You look like you're real smart.

For a change.

THEY LAUGH

Be nice!

Moral support here
is very important!

This is going to be
a long and arduous trial.

He's only got one kidney.
I'm sick. I'm sick.

I just want you to understand
that he makes these comments

but you're the one
that's going to prison.

THEY LAUGH

If it's coming in, that's a given...
It's coming in. It's coming in.

If that's the given, then I agree,
you've got to go forward with it.

My presumption right now

is that I'm going to take on
the Ratliff thing in some way.

I'm going to, in some way,

present to the jury that it's not
fair to try this stuff in the media.

It's not fair.

It's not our way to dig up bodies
two weeks before trial

so that there's
a whole bunch of publicity.

That doesn't satisfy
anybody's burden of proof.

The only way you satisfy a burden of
proof is by bringing in the witness.

You have that presumption of
innocence and a reasonable doubt.

They've got to overcome that.

The bar of reasonable doubt
has been raised significantly now

in the light of the Ratliff.

So it's, instead of being there,
which could play it safe,

"Oh, well, they didn't prove this
or these alternative things",

with this "coincidence"
it's now up to here.

Anyway, all right,
I think were done.

You know, this was important for you
all to be a part of. Yeah, I agree.

So that you know what my
thinking is, all right?

I think this is what our thinking
was all along. OK. All right.

In terms of look and dress
and that tomorrow... Right.

..your eyebrows need to be trimmed.
OK. You need to be shaved. Right.

You need to look neat,
you need to look rested. All right?

If you need to take a Valium...

Sure. ..take a Valium,
because you know what?

You're not going to be needing to do
anything other than sort of zone in.

I know that. That's what I was...
I don't have any Valium.

You don't need to fall asleep.
No, no, no.

And also, the other thing is,
you know, you're going to probably

hear some things that
are going to be hard to hear,

and if somebody says, "Well,
we think he's absolutely guilty

"and why aren't they
seeking the death penalty?"

"Why don't we just
lynch him right here?" Right.

Yeah, you're not going to
send them daggers,

which you don't seem like the kind
of person who would do that anyway.

Yeah, and you know, the truth is,
if somebody says that,

the subliminal message, the body
language message, needs to be

"Thank you for being that honest."

The other thing is,
because of the Ratliff thing,

it's very important
for Martha and Margaret...

They've got to be here
the whole trial.

..to be here for the whole trial.
Yeah, that worked out really nice.

Because people have said
in the open-ended question,

one of the reasons they
think you might not be guilty

or that you have doubts, is that
he has proclaimed his innocence,

his lawyer is fighting,
saying he's innocent

and his family is sticking by him.

Yeah, we were doing
one of these corporate exercises

with the executive staff where

you're supposed to tell something
personal about yourself.

It's team-building, is what it is.

Right. So one guy got up,
actually a very good friend of mine,

since left the company, but he said,
"You know, I always wanted to...

"I always wanted to be a lawyer.
That was really what I wanted to do,

"but then I found Jesus
and I realised that

"being a Christian and being a
lawyer are completely incompatible."

THEY LAUGH

It's true. True.

Yeah.

Oh, God.

So you mean I have really
got to shut my mind off now,

basically for two months.

You can't read a book.
You can't bring a book up to the...

HE LAUGHS

Video game?

I mean, you're just supposed
to sit there and look...

And don't stare at the jury.

Don't stare at the jury? Yeah.

Because it looks like
you're soliciting them.

HE SIGHS

They'll be looking at you a lot.

That's one thing
you have to remember,

they are assessing your behaviour
and conduct. They form opinions...

Dear God. ..about how you behave..
Could I get a double?

LAUGHS: Just to stand there!

Saddam Hussein double for me!

Oh, God!

Mm.

I could sit in a dark, quiet room
for two months, you know,

Goethe used to say
that was the test of a man.

That if you could go, you could
lock a man up in a dark room...

With nothing...
With nothing to read, nothing to do,

nothing, just his own thoughts.

That was Goethe's test of a man

and I'd think,
"Well, hell, anybody can do that."

I think, no, he needs to rethink
that. The real test of a man is

to be able to sit there and listen
to Jim Hardin and Orlando Hudson.

THEY LAUGH

The range is going to
go from 39 to... 51. ..51.

71, 72...

61 to 72? Right.

That's these. They're in order.
OK, those are in order.

And then I'm going to go through
a whole long thing

about the relationship and
I'm going to take them back to 1988

and 1989 and 1992 and 1997,

and then I'm going to say,

"And together, they built a family

"out of the various strands
of their prior families."

Wait, wait. Hold on.

I don't want to have that bar up
there, because it's going to

distract them from what I'm saying.

Can you just keep it black screen
until I go to your cue,

and then pop up with the picture?

Right, you want the picture first?

I want the picture. Yeah. OK,
let's go back to the black screen.

What is that thing
in the middle there?

That's just a default bar
that doesn't have to show at all.

I don't want it showing. OK.

I can't get rid of it right now
but I... OK, yeah,

let's get rid of the bar. Yeah. OK?

And what I'd do like to do is, um...

When I...

PHONE VIBRATES

It's just my telephone. Sorry.

When I say...

.."Together, they built a family

"out of the various strands of
their prior families. Caitlin..."

No, wait till I... Yeah,
but I want to get a black screen.

That's right,
I want to go black screen.

OK, can you turn it on
before I even get up to speak?

And then go to black screen so we
don't have to see that thing again.

Blacker...
Do you mean, you mean this...

You want that without this?

Can you lose that?
Yes, I can lose it.

I can't lose it right now
but I can lose a...

OK, but what I'm saying is...
Could you just go...

Can you lose the whole thing
so it's just a black screen

and then it goes to the picture?

Yes, and it looks like that.
Yeah, that's all I want. OK.

And then the next picture comes up.

When I say, "Together they built
a family out of the various

"strands of their prior families..."
Yeah.

I'm leaving.
Do you all need anything?

No, we're great,
thank you very much. Goodnight.

"Out of the prior strands...

"Out of the various strands of
their prior families" - put it up.

OK, so they have something
to look it. Exactly. Yeah.

"We can see that the laceration
on the left, the V-shaped one,

"is consistent with that corner.
The last..."

PHONE VIBRATES

My telephone. OK.

"The last impact that
you saw on that..."

Um, we've got
a little situation going on.

We've got smoke in the building
downstairs. OK.

So we're unable to...

If you can wrap it up today,

how much longer do you think
you're going to be?

We're going to have to
do an evacuation.

We don't know yet, we haven't
found it yet. We're looking for it.

OK, well, if we have to evacuate,
we're just going to have to...

We'll do our best, but just let us
know. All right. Just wanted to...

I appreciate it. If you see
people running... OK, thank you.

"The bottoms of her feet
were covered in blood

"and how do we know that?
There's a photo of it."

Do you want it right now? Yes.
Do you want to prepare them for it?

No, no, no.

Well, that doesn't work.

That doesn't work at all.
We've got this one. Whoops.

No.

If one is off,
they're all going to be off.

And then I can put them in proper
order... This is how it needs to be.

It's... I do understand that.
It's right there. I know that.

I know what I did wrong
while I was doing it on the fly

before we started this.
I know what I did wrong.

I made an error
when I loaded them in.

Right now, right now...
This system sucks

because I've done it
with presentation group

and I had none of these problems.

None.

None, none.

And I am fucking pissed

because it's 7:20
the night before my opening

and you're fucking around with this.

One of these documents is apparently
out of order. I just don't know...

I cannot give you the documents
in the order that you want them.

All I can do right now is go
through. I guarantee you...

No, I don't want a guarantee.
..they will be there.

I want to see it on the screen,

so I don't give a shit
if we're here all fucking night.

Well, I'm not sure that they will be
either. I think so but I don't know.

HE SIGHS

This case is no more
and no longer about Kathleen.

The DA has to win. That's it.

He doesn't care how,
and basically, by the same token,

my lawyer, they want to win.

Truth is lost in all of this now.

Truth is of no meaning whatsoever.

This has become a show
and it has got its own momentum

and we're just going along.

I don't think the DA cares
about the truth any more.

All he wants to do is win,
and I understand that. I mean, sure.

In the same way with David,
he wants to win.

Well, I want to win too,
but I'm still very concerned about

the reality of
what happened that night.

Hey, guys.

Where's Mike?

What's that? They just hit
a stop light. OK, I'll wait.

I'll wait, I'll wait.

Be nice. Be calm.

You all right? Yeah, yeah.

Pretty good. How you doing? Yeah.

It's OK. You want me to get that,
Dad? What's that?

You want me to get that?

INDISTINCT

All right, Chris, we're going to
see if you can beat us upstairs now.

We got a crew on that. Ah...

Hey.

Thanks. OK, all right.

All right, that's fine, that's fine.

All right, Hart.

See you up there, buddy.
Run up now.

Want to see you as
I get out of the elevator.

Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Start with the 911 and then...
After the... After the...

..last headshot, then
get the movie ready. Right.

After the third laceration shot.
Right.

Yo, buddy.

THEY TALK QUIETLY

SHUTTERS CLICK

Good morning to each of you.

The core issues are simple

but everything else
about this case isn't.

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

The defendant says that Kathleen
Peterson's death was caused by

a tragic accidental fall
downstairs 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.

I've selected a couple of pictures
for you that really in my mind

show this diametric opposition.

The first photograph I'm going to
show you is of Kathleen.

This would have been taken,
this is how she would have looked

prior to December 9th of 2001,

had you seen her in her home
or possibly at work.

You can see from this photograph,
you can feel from this photograph,

that she's a very
genteel, warm person.

Now, on December 9th of 2001,

at 2:48,

when EMS personnel first arrive,

they see Kathleen Peterson
in a completely different way.

They see her lying at
the bottom of her steps...

..just as you see
in this photograph.

Now, later that day, after her body
has been removed from the home,

she's taken to
the medical examiner's office.

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.

You heard Mr Rudolf talk with you

about the fact that
we didn't have a weapon.

That's true.

We don't have the actual implement

that Mike Peterson used
to cause this injury.

Wounding, lacerations to
the back of Kathleen's head.

But we have an identical replica.

Where did we get it?

Kathleen's sister Candace
gave several family members

a blow poker just like this one.

Kathleen had had this in her home

for years and years
and years and years,

but mysteriously,
on December 9th, it's gone.

It's hollow, it's light,

it's easily used and we will contend
to you this, or something like this,

is the article that was
used to inflict these wounds.

The blow poker that had
been given to Kathleen

15 years before, apparently,
and is now mysteriously missing -

we'll hear about whether
it's mysterious or not.

They didn't find any murder weapon.

Nothing was found.

Where did it go?
Where did this blow poker go?

They searched his cars.
There wasn't any blood in the cars.

They went all around the house,
there wasn't any blood upstairs,

he didn't change his clothes,
he didn't...

Where did he get rid of it?

And when?

That's left mysterious,

but we don't convict people
based on mysterious here.

I mean, can you imagine somebody
beating somebody over the head...

..whacking them as hard as
they can?

Because you don't whack
someone,

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.

We intend to show you during this
trial, to the best of our ability,

what happened in that stairway on
December 9th was a tragic accident,

an accident that
left Michael Peterson...

..not a wealthy man
but a very poor man,

in the thing that was
most important to him.

It left him without his soul mate.

Kathleen and Michael connected
in a way that...

that a few people who are
really, really lucky in life

have a chance to connect.

And they built a family,
the two of them...

..built a family out of the strands
of their prior families.

Todd on the left,

Kathleen and Michael, Margaret sort
of peeking out from the back there,

Caitlin in the front,
Clayton and Martha.

What kept them together,
what caused them to build that,

was a love that absolutely everyone
who saw them or knew them...

..understood and
recognised and envied.

Listen to how Caitlin Atwater,

who unfortunately now sits
on opposite sides -

and that's one of
the real tragedies of this case -

listen to how she described

what Michael Peterson meant
to her mother.

This is from 1999. "Michael Peterson
stopped my mother's tears.

"I used to sit at the top of the
stairs leaning through the banister

"and listen to my mother sob
every night

"for a year after my father left.

"My father had torn her apart,

"crushing her shell and
the illusion in which she lived,

"destroying her dignity and pride,

"but Mike was able to
restore her strength and confidence

"and to show her that
she could find true love.

"From the beginning, I was in debt
to Mike in my heart and mind

"for bringing back
my mother's happiness."

You know,
if the prosecution is correct,

how do we go from
soul mate and lover

to cold-blooded murderer?

How does that happen?

Well, the answer is very simple.
You don't.

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.

What Michael Peterson brought
to Kathleen Peterson

was true happiness over 13 years.

That's the picture.

That's not posed.

That's Kathleen sitting
on Michael's lap.

Now, what you see there is
the happiness that she felt with him

and that he felt with her.

Everyone who really knew
that relationship,

everyone who knew them,
knew that they loved each other.

Everyone who knew them

knows that Michael Peterson
had nothing to do with

the death of Kathleen Peterson.

And at the end of
all the evidence...

..I'm going to ask the 12 of you
to come back and return a verdict

that will in fact speak the truth in
this case -

a verdict of not guilty.

Thank you.

All right, members of the jury,

we're going to take
our lunch break at this point.

Mr Deputy, 1:30. All stand.

Oyez, oyez, oyez.

The Court of the County of Durham is
in recess until 1:30 this afternoon.

God save the state
and this honourable court.