Michael Iver Peterson was convicted in 2003 of murdering his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, on December 9, 2001. After eight years, Peterson was granted a new trial after the judge ruled a critical prosecution witness gave misleading testimony. In 2017, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time already served and freed. His case is the subject of the documentary miniseries The Staircase, which started filming soon after his arrest in 2001.
About Michael Peterson (criminal) in brief
Michael Iver Peterson was convicted in 2003 of murdering his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, on December 9, 2001. After eight years, Peterson was granted a new trial after the judge ruled a critical prosecution witness gave misleading testimony. In 2017, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time already served and freed. Peterson’s case is the subject of the documentary miniseries The Staircase, which started filming soon after his arrest in 2001. In 2019, he released his own account of his life since his wife’s death in an independently published memoir, Behind the Stair Case. Peterson wrote three novels based on his experiences during the Vietnamese conflict. He co-wrote the biographical Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company with journalist David Perlmutt, and co- wrote Operation Broken Reed with Lt. Col. Arthur L. Boyd. He is married to Kathleen Atwater, a successful Nortel business executive, and they have a daughter, Caitlin. Peterson is the father of Clayton, Todd, Martha, and Caitlin’s sister, Candace Zamperini, both of whom publicly proclaimed his innocence alongside his children. He also has two children, Clayton and Todd. Peterson served in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Vietnam. In 1971, he received an honorable discharge with the rank of captain after a car accident left him with a permanent disability. He later admitted he had won a Silver Star, a Bronze Star with Valor, and two Purple Hearts.
Peterson later admitted his war injury was not the result of a shrapnel wound in Vietnam, but was theresult of a car crash in Japan, where he was stationed after the war as a military policeman. Peterson and his first wife Patricia lived in Germany for some time. When Elizabeth Ratliff died in 1985, Michael became the guardian of her two children. In 1989, Michael moved in with Kathleen Atwaters and they married in 1997, and Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin joined the extended family. Peterson also worked as a newspaper columnist for the Durham Herald-Sun, where his columns became known for their criticism of police and of Durham County District Attorney James Hardin Jr. Hardin was the prosecutor of Peterson for the murder of his second Wife, Kathleen. Peterson has a son, Clayton, and daughter-in-law, Kathleen Caitlin Atwaters, with whom he has two sons, Todd and Todd, as well as a stepson, Clayton Clayton Peterson. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife Kathleen and his stepdaughter Caitlin Caitlin, and his son Clayton Todd. He has three grandchildren, Todd Todd, and a stepdaughter, Catelyn Todd Peterson, who lives with her mother in North Carolina. In 2011, Peterson wrote a book about his experiences in the Vietnam War, The Immortal Dragon, A Time of War, and A Bitter Peace. The book was published by Simon & Schuster.
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This page is based on the article Michael Peterson (criminal) published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 09, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
