GUILTY NC - Kathleen Peterson, 48, found dead in her Durham home, 9 Dec 2001

[whonos]

Diane Fanning's book (Written in Blood) and http://www.peterson-staircase.com talk a lot about the information that was absent from the documentary, if you want to get a broader view of the case.

The author mentions an incident with one of their dogs that was horrific. My mind is blank because I freeze when reading of such abuse directed toward children and animals, but it was at their pool and others were present. One daughter ran over and tried to soothe the poor dog. Someone else may remember exactly but, I think he beat the dog.
I honestly cannot imagine that they all continued to live as if things were fine. The father beats the family dog? What?

 

[whonos]

I went back to find the excerpt. He beat the dog with a "hard plastic fountain" that was attached to a hose, until he was bloodied, because the dog had drug it into the pool. Peterson screamed because he had replaced the fountain 3 times. Margaret was the only one brave enough to soothe the dog after Peterson forbade anyone to go near him, saying he wanted to teach him a lesson.

If Kathleen ignored behavior like this, then probably a lot more of it took place between the two of them that she never shared.

 

[wildebeest]

This guy absolutely gives me the creeps. I recently learned he was let out of prison and will receive a new trial. I am appalled!!! One of his biggest lies was that Kathleen was fine with him having affairs with men. Very hard to believe.

IMHO

 

[Jennibee]

Oh wow...anyone who is cruel to animals is evil in my book.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Skigirl]

There's a hearing today at 10:00 AM ET. It will be streamed by WRAL. Unfortunately I'll be in a meeting then: http://abc11.com/news/durham-novelist-michael-peterson-back-in-court/1469974/

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Thanks for the heads up Skigirl. I agree with wildebeest.....MP has always given me the creeps too. Yuck.

 

[Skigirl]

Did anyone watch?

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

I just checked for updates....this link says the hearing will take several days. No news yet.

DURHAM NOVELIST MICHAEL PETERSON BACK IN COURT

http://abc11.com/news/durham-novelist-michael-peterson-back-in-court/1469974/

 

[borndem]

Here's the latest from WRAL -- It may just be a re-hash --

[h=5]Mike Peterson's lawyer attacks handling of murder trial evidence[/h] As Mike Peterson prepares for a retrial in his wife's death, his attorney questioned Durham County court clerks Monday about why evidence in Peterson's 2003 murder trial was mishandled over the years.

[h=6]Related Stories[/h]

• Mike Peterson returns to court (part 2) 28 mins ago

Read more at http://www.wral.com/news/local/#Z83Cl5sfuCIpGj2B.99

 

[Skigirl]

I just checked for updates....this link says the hearing will take several days. No news yet.

DURHAM NOVELIST MICHAEL PETERSON BACK IN COURT

http://abc11.com/news/durham-novelist-michael-peterson-back-in-court/1469974/

No no, there was definitely a hearing today. WRAL has it on their website. I watched part of it. A lot about how the evidence has been kept. His attorneys argued that the case should not go back to trial because the evidence was not adequately preserved. I did not watch the whole hearing -- I have not had time -- but I did see about half of it.

 

[trigger]

No no, there was definitely a hearing today. WRAL has it on their website. I watched part of it. A lot about how the evidence has been kept. His attorneys argued that the case should not go back to trial because the evidence was not adequately preserved. I did not watch the whole hearing -- I have not had time -- but I did see about half of it.

Thank you -There is part one and part two in Wral website

http://www.wral.com/news/video/15931506/

 

[StarrChance]

Thank you -There is part one and part two in Wral website

http://www.wral.com/news/video/15931506/

Thanks for the update, his attorney seems very awkward and not terribly well prepared IMO.

 

[joe jones]

watched the motion hearing, am utterly gobsmacked at the way the court looked after the evidence, especially the evidence that had blood on it, when the attorney got the boxes of evidence into court and the items were pulled out one by one they were in an absolute state, most of the bags were open with the evidence hanging out all piled and mixed up together,

I think he murdered Kathleen, their is no other logical explanation of the evidence in my opinion, I do agree that he did not get a fair trial when the revelations about Deavers testimony was revealed and was entitled to a retrial, we now have to wait till November to see how the judge rules in this case

I hope the Durham courts are now sorting out their evidence collection and storage procedures

 

[Skigirl]

watched the motion hearing, am utterly gobsmacked at the way the court looked after the evidence, especially the evidence that had blood on it, when the attorney got the boxes of evidence into court and the items were pulled out one by one they were in an absolute state, most of the bags were open with the evidence hanging out all piled and mixed up together,

I think he murdered Kathleen, their is no other logical explanation of the evidence in my opinion, I do agree that he did not get a fair trial when the revelations about Deavers testimony was revealed and was entitled to a retrial, we now have to wait till November to see how the judge rules in this case

I hope the Durham courts are now sorting out their evidence collection and storage procedures

I totally agree that the lack of care for the evidence was SHOCKING. And the tech that testified acted as if it was totally normal for the evidence bags to be ripped open with shoes and other items of clothing hanging out and jumbled with other evidence. Whoever was in charge of keeping the evidence sorted should be terminated for cause.

 

[Madeleine74]

That was 15 years ago.

People were fired, the standards and such for the SBI lab were upgraded and there's been no problems since then, as far as I know. There are many articles about the lab and what occurred which can be found through the Raleigh News & Observer (archives).

 

[Skigirl]

That was 15 years ago.

People were fired, the standards and such for the SBI lab were upgraded and there's been no problems since then, as far as I know. There are many articles about the lab and what occurred which can be found through the Raleigh News & Observer (archives).

"That" was not 15 years ago. The trial was in 2003. The evidence was (apparently) compromised when it was moved to a new location. I say "apparently" because records were so poor that no one knows where the evidence came from or went to, or why it was found in three different locations, and what date it was moved there. The person who was in charge of the evidence during the time of the move is still working for the city and testified at the hearing. There were no rules about who could move evidence or where it was supposed to be kept. This is in a case in which the defendant has been living as a free person since 2011, so the city had five years to track down the evidence, consolidate it into one location, and make sure it was not any more compromised than necessary. I saw no evidence that anyone even checked on it until the defense requested access. This does not just involve the SBI lab.

 

[Madeleine74]

The murder was in 2001 (15 years ago)

The forensic testing would have been done in 2001/2002.

The trial was in 2003.

It's now 2016 and I followed the reports and news articles that came out. The crime lab NOW (not talking back in 2001 but now) has been cleaned up and people fired and cases litigated in the last 10 years, give or take, have not had the problems that earlier cases did (or might have had).

Peterson was monitored via ankle monitor upon his conviction being vacated up until mid 2014.

 

[AlwaysShocked]

I watched the original trial and have followed this case since. I've been hoping he would be tried again. I don't recall the case actually depending much on things like clothing and shoes, did it? To me at the time, it was the photos of the blood all over the walls and the multiple lacerations to Kathleen's skull that convinced me she had been murdered. His defense was that she had not been murdered, that she had fallen down the stairs. That was just unbelievable based on the pattern of the blows to the poor woman's head.

Can someone please provide a link to Part 2 of the WRAL coverage of the Evidence Hearing? I cannot find it.

By the way, never a man with Hollywood good looks, time has not been kind to Michael Peterson. He looks like a wizened, pointy-eared old elf!

 

[AlwaysShocked]

I found and watched part 2 of the Evidence Hearing. While I agree that it appears that someone was very sloppy in handling the evidence located within the box shown - and why oh why does this not surprise me? - even if the Judge decides to throw out the actual items of evidence contained within those boxes, that would not mean that any laboratory testing performed on those items would be thrown out. Since this case has been through numerous appeals and numerous defense lawyers over the years, I doubt there is anything in those boxes that would need to be newly tested to make the Prosecution's case.

This judge is a bit weird. Extremely ponderous. Big lo-o-o-ng pauses when he speaks. Taps his desk with his fingers. At one point during a witness's testimony you could see his hands in the background thumbing his iPhone. At another point, he had paused in speaking for so long that the Prosecutor broke the silence with "Does that mean you are denying the motion, you honor?"

I did not think Peterson's female attorney was bad at all. She's obviously trying her best for her client. She wanted to subpoena all the Police emails from 1997 through 2001 in order to look for Michael Peterson's name in any of them. To support her theory that LE concentrated solely on Peterson at the time of Kathleen's death and failed to broaden their investigation to look for any other killer. She said emails might show that LE had a prior prejudice against Peterson because he wrote articles critical of the police department. The Prosecutor labeled this a "fishing expedition" and the judge agreed, denying the motion.

 

[Skigirl]

The murder was in 2001 (15 years ago)

The forensic testing would have been done in 2001/2002.

The trial was in 2003.

It's now 2016 and I followed the reports and news articles that came out. The crime lab NOW (not talking back in 2001 but now) has been cleaned up and people fired and cases litigated in the last 10 years, give or take, have not had the problems that earlier cases did (or might have had).

Peterson was monitored via ankle monitor upon his conviction being vacated up until mid 2014.

Mishandling of the evidence does not only involve the crime lab.