It is an 8-chapter miniseries whose plot is based on a real event that happened in 2001, after the death in strange circumstances of Katherine Petersonwriter’s wife Michael Petersonand that she was found at the foot of the stairs of her house with several head wounds and a lot of blood around her.
Starring by Colin Firth and Toni Colette, The Staircase (2022) It offers us a judicial thriller that shows important details throughout the chapters, managing to keep us excited until the end, at least if we have not been tempted to see what happened in the real story.
Michael’s long legal battle when he was accused of having murdered his wife was quite a media event in the United States, to the point that a parallel documentary of the case (which can currently be seen on Netflix). He was defended by the lawyer David Rudolphwho in the series is played by Michael Stuhlbargwhose costs over so many years left the defendant bankrupt.
A very realistic series
The series deals with the events that happened in a fairly reliable way and even most of the characters that appear are quite similar to reality. Nor are practically any details left out of all those that arose during the case sessions, such as the defendant’s bisexuality or his exaggerations in the Vietnam War, which, although unrelated to the accusation, helped to decide the jury. The news that a friend of Michael’s had died in Germany in a similar way (on some stairs!), fueled suspicions, and even more so when it was shown that in reality he had not died naturally but by homicide. The most curious thing is that Michael adopted his two daughters.
The appearance of death in Germany divided the familyalthough the majority supported Michael, such as his brother, his sons and also the adopted daughters. Only Katherine’s daughter and her sister supported the murder thesis defended by the prosecution
Life sentence
In 2003 and after five months of trial, Michael was declared guilty of killing his wife and sentenced to life sentence. However, there were failures that motivated a new trial, annulling the previous one, such as the false testimony from one of the experts at the scene. There were also doubts about the object that could have been used for the homicide, the fireplace poker, which according to the lawyer was hidden by the police in the registry since it had no evidence of having been used in the crime.
The case of the “killer owl”
And without a doubt the most extravagant theory was that of a neighbor who opted for an owl attack as the cause of death, since it met some of the main reasons such as the injuries recorded on Katherine’s head (she had several deep wounds but without skull fracture, which made the use of a blunt object difficult). Although the autopsy found feathers in the deceased’s hands, this option was not taken seriously.
However, everything changed in 2017, when Michael decided, advised by his lawyers, to plead “guilty” based on the “Alford Statement”. This allowed him to leave prison since he had served the required time (he had been in prison for 86 months).
What is the Alford Statement?
It is a type of declaration in North American justice that allows the accused abide by the guilty verdict but maintain one’s innocencewhich is literally “I’m guilty but I didn’t do it” (I’m guilty but I didn’t do it).
This happens when there are enough evidence or evidence against you that justify the guilty verdict. Therefore, the accused admits that under that prism that he is guilty but maintaining his innocence, in what is a pact of conformity, considerably reducing his sentence, as in the case of Michael Peterson, who managed to be released.
The origin of this doctrine is located in 1970, in the Henry Alford case in North Carolina, who was charged with first-degree murder for murder after an argument with the victim. For avoid the death penaltypleaded guilty to second-degree murder (not premeditated). In the end the Supreme Court allowed him to plead guilty alone to avoid a higher sentenceincluding a “protest of innocence,” laying the foundation for the Alford Declaration.
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