‘Staircase’ update expands on saga of death in 2001

Early on the morning of Dec. 9, 2001, Michael Peterson called 911 in a panic.

“My wife had an accident,” he said.

“What kind of accident?” the dispatcher asked.

“She fell down the stairs,” replied Peterson, a novelist and newspaper columnist.

Peterson spoke frantically as he told the dispatcher that his wife, Kathleen — who lay in a pool of blood at the bottom of a back staircase in the couple's 9,000-square-foot mansion in Durham, North Carolina — was breathing but unconscious.

Eleven days later, Peterson was charged with murder in the death of his wife, a telecommunications executive with prominent ties to the Durham community. The district attorney's office would argue that Kathleen Peterson's injurieswere inconsistent with a fall down stairs. Prosecutors said her husband had beaten her to death.

In October 2003, after a three-month trial, a jury convicted Peterson of firstdegree murder; he was sentenced to life in prison. The trial, though, was only the beginning of a confounding, oftensensational legal saga. During the past 15 years, the case has been the subject of many documentaries and a BBC radio podcast.

Last week, Netflix released an updated, 13-episode version of the project that arguably started it all: “The Staircase,” the 2004 docuseries by JeanXavier de Lestrade.

Here’s what you need to know about the case.

• The defense: In the opening episode of “The Staircase,” Peterson recalls a nice evening spent with his wife. He says they watched “American Sweethearts” and had been drinking in celebration of one of his novels having been optioned for a movie.

Peterson's legal team alleged that she had mixed prescription Valium with alcohol and fell after she “tried to walk up a narrow, poorly lit stairway in flip-flops.”

• The prosecution: Prosecutors argued that Peterson beat his wife with a fireplace poker, and that her head wounds were caused by blunt-force trauma. They said Peterson was in debt, zeroing in on a $1.4 million life-insurance policy as a motive.

• The secrets: The prosecution focused on photos and emails found on Michael Peterson's computer that suggested he had engaged in many extramarital affairs with men. The state contended that the night Kathleen Peterson died, she had discovered this information. Michael maintained that she knew he was bisexual and that he’d had sex with other people.

• An eerily similar case: As prosecutors geared up for the trial, it came out that, two decades earlier, the mother of Michael Peterson's two adopted daughters had also been found dead at the foot of a staircase.

• The plea deal: After years of appeals, Michael Peterson was granted a retrial. He was released from prison in 2011 after a judge ruled that a key prosecution witness had lied on the stand. His conviction was overturned, and a new trial date set for May 2017. But in February of last year, Peterson was freed after entering an Alford plea, which means he maintains his innocence but acknowledges that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him. He was given credit for the eight years he’d served in prison and not required to serve additional time.