Michael Iver Peterson
Michael Peterson (* 23. October 1943 in Nashville , Tennessee ) is an American writer and because homicide convict .
Life
Peterson is the son of Australian immigrants and studied political science at Duke University in Durham , his later adopted home town . Then he attended at the University of North Carolina in nearby Chapel Hill individual seminars in jurisprudence .
After graduating, Peterson worked for the United States Department of Defense for several years and married his first wife, Patricia Sue. He eventually joined the Marines and served in Vietnam for a year . After a serious traffic accident as a military policeman while on duty in Japan , he was honorably discharged from active service in 1971 with the rank of captain .
Together with his first wife, Peterson then moved to Graefenhausen , where she worked as a primary school teacher at the US Air Force base. This is also where his two sons, Clayton and Todd, were born. Peterson and his wife's best friends at the time were Elizabeth and George Ratliff with their two daughters Margaret and Martha. After George Ratliff was first killed during an assignment in Grenada and then his wife Elizabeth died in 1985, Peterson became the girls' guardian. After Peterson's divorce from Patricia Sue in 1987, his sons Clayton and Todd stayed with her for a few years while Margaret and Martha moved with Peterson to Durham.
Upon returning to the United States , Peterson began writing. He has published several novels that revolve around the war in Vietnam. He also wrote a column in the local newspaper about the grievances within the Durham Police and City Council, which earned him criticism from some local political actors.
In 1989, Kathleen Atwater, a successful manager of the Canadian communications company Nortel , moved to Peterson. After their wedding in 1997, Kathleen's young daughter Caitlin also moved to Durham, so that the family ultimately consisted of Peterson and his wife and the children Clayton, Todd, Martha, Margaret and Caitlin.
During this time, Peterson made several attempts to win political office. Both his candidacy for the post of Mayor of Durham and his candidacy for a seat on the city council failed.
Murder trial
On October 10, 2003, Peterson was sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole in the longest trial in North Carolina history for the murder of his wife Kathleen . The case received wide media coverage and appeared, among other things, in the television series Medical Detectives in the second section of episode 135 ( A Question of Credibility , in the original A Novel Idea ). In most broadcast formats, the prosecution's point of view was predominantly presented. Peterson is said to have killed his wife with a blunt object and staged the murder as a fall. The motive was increasingly given to Kathleen's high life insurance policy and the possibility that she might have found out something about his bisexual inclinations, which he was hiding from his family.
The documentary The Staircase shows the case primarily from Peterson's point of view and accompanies him through the entire court process. Recordings began a few weeks after his wife's death in 2001 and ended with his conviction. A connection to the death of Elizabeth Ratliff was also made during the trial: She was found dead by a staircase in Graefenhausen , Germany in 1985 when Peterson was stationed in Germany. The last person reported to have seen her alive was Peterson.
After it became known that a blood trail expert, who was an authoritative witness for the prosecution in the first trial, had been dismissed by the state investigative authorities for numerous false reports in court cases, a new case was initiated by Peterson's lawyers. In December 2011, Peterson was awarded a new trial. He was released from prison and placed under house arrest on bail for US $ 300,000. He was initially required to wear an electronic shackle, but was relieved of this obligation on July 8, 2014 after the North Carolina Supreme Court declined in December 2013 to overturn the rescheduling decision.
In November 2016, the start of a new procedure was set for May 8, 2017. On February 22, 2017, a procedural arrangement was reached between his lawyers and the prosecution. Peterson continues to plead his innocence, but pleaded guilty to 2nd degree murder (comparable to manslaughter) in court so that the case can be shelved. He was eventually sentenced to the term he already served and has been a free man ever since.
Publications
- The Immortal Dragon , New American Library, 1983, ISBN 978-0451122452
- A Time of War , Pocket Books, 1990, ISBN 978-0671683030 (German. A time to kill , translation Michael Bischoff . Piper, 1991, ISBN 978-3492033770 )
- A Bitter Peace , Pocket Books, 1995, ISBN 978-0671726966
- Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company , with David Perlmutt, Naval Institute Press, 1998, ISBN 978-1557506726
- Operation Broken Reed , with Arthur L. Boyd, Da Capo Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0786720866
- Barely Breathing , Faith Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-1681977003
- Cross The Bridge To My Words , Kindle Direct Publishing, 2018, ISBN 978-1983642166
- Behind The Staircase , Kindle Direct Publishing, 2019, ISBN 978-1796306927
Web links
- Literature by and about Michael Iver Peterson in the WorldCat bibliographic database
Individual evidence
- ^ Novelist Michael Peterson, Convicted of Wife's Murder, Is Released From Prison and Will Get New Trial. In: ABC News . ABC , December 15, 2011, accessed December 17, 2011 .
- ↑ http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/12/20/3475230/nc-supreme-court-will-not-review.html
- ↑ http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/07/08/3991509/michael-peterson-seeks-freedom.html
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Peterson, Michael Iver |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American politician and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 23, 1943 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nashville |