The American drama "Between the Stairs" is inspired by a real case in the United States in 2001: the murder of Mike's wife, which caused extremely negative social impact in the United States. . In the process of solving the case, coincidences and conspiracies emerged one after another, and the cases were constantly overturned, which truly exposed the corruption and chaos of the American judicial system and seriously reduced the credibility of the American government.
At 2:40 a.m. on February 9, 2006, the Durham Police Department in the United States received a call: On the other end of the phone, 58-year-old Mike shouted for help, saying that his wife Katherine had fallen down the stairs. Come down. Although she was still breathing weakly, she was in very bad shape.
Fifteen minutes later, the police station received a second call. Mike said the ambulance hadn't arrived yet, but Katherine had stopped breathing. After the second call, the police quickly arrived at Mike's mansion. However, after investigating the scene, they did not rescue the injured Catherine. Instead, they blocked the scene and arrested Mike as the only suspect.
The police later explained: Judging from the amount of blood loss at the scene, this so-called falling case did not look like an accident, but more like a homicide. Based on the blood spatter at the scene, it can be concluded that the victim's bleeding volume was extremely large. The deceased's lower body was basically soaked in blood, so that his pants were soaked. And when he first called the police, Mike said that Catherine was still breathing, but according to feedback from the scene at the time, Catherine's blood had dried up for several hours, and she might have been dead for a while when the police were called.
Because the protagonist of the incident, Mike, is a famous American novelist, and according to his own statement, he is also a Vietnam War hero who won the Purple Heart Medal, so he not only has a lot of money, but is also very famous. Therefore, when the case was made public by the media, it immediately attracted national attention. People even forgot about the "9.15438+0" incident that happened a few months ago, and were focused on waiting for the police's detection results.
In the end, the Durham police believed that Mike was extremely likely to commit a crime and took him into custody. A few days later, the autopsy report and the simulation results of the case also confirmed this: the report showed that Catherine suffered severe head injuries before her death, and these serious wounds could only be caused by blunt force blows.
At this point, the case seems to have some clues. Mike killed his wife, Katherine, with a blunt object. In order to hide the truth, he made up a lie and called the police. In the end, he was discovered by the clever police. The great Durham police arrested the real murderer, gave justice to the deceased, and upheld the dignity of justice. However, the client, Mike, firmly opposed the police accusations. He insisted from beginning to end that he was also a poor victim, but faced with his wife's sudden accident, he was powerless. Because of Mike's strong financial strength, his legal team is also working hard to overturn the case.
Michael Peterson was born in June 1943 into a family of military officers. Because his father was serving abroad for many years, Michael Peterson lived an extremely unstable life throughout his childhood, moving frequently. Because of this, Michael Peterson joined the Marine Corps after graduating from college and served in Vietnam for four years.
After the Vietnam War, Michael Peterson entered the National Government as a military adviser to the foreign offices and did not return to his hometown until 11 years later. After retiring, Michael Peterson began his creative career, published several military novels, and became a famous writer. As for Katherine Atwater, she is a talented woman with bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering. At the time of her death, she worked as a general manager for a multinational company in Durham.
Michael Peterson and Catherine Atwater have been married for many years, and their relationship has always been sweet. They are a model couple in the eyes of others. They have a younger daughter and four children, two of whom were born to Michael Peterson from his previous marriage. The eldest daughter and second daughter were adopted by Michael Peterson after the death of a friend.
Since Michael Peterson (Michael Peterson) was identified by the police as the main suspect in the murder of his wife, people familiar with him have been a little stunned because they can’t figure out why Michael, who has great military achievements and family It's wonderful that a good man who even ran for mayor would commit such a crime. It's really confusing.
Michael Peterson's five children also thought the police's theory was ridiculous. They would never believe that their father could be their mother's murderer.
But as the police investigated, Michael Peterson's dark side began to emerge.
In Michael Peterson's computer and emails, the police discovered that Michael Peterson had cheated on him many times, and the objects of his cheating were even more surprising. The other parties were multiple men.
It turns out that Michael Peterson has always been bisexual and had hookups on military websites many times during his marriage.
This discovery by the police immediately caused a rift in Michael Peterson's family. At first, Michael Peterson's youngest daughter supported her father, but she completely turned her back after learning that Michael Peterson had cheated on him during their marriage and had sex everywhere. She believes this may have been Michael Peterson's primary motive for murdering Katherine Atwater.
Compared with the defection of the younger daughter, the most dramatic turn was that the police discovered that Michael Peterson was involved in another staircase case in his early years.
Seventeen years ago, a female friend of Mike died under the stairs in a similar manner to Catherine. Coincidentally, Mike was also with her at the time, which led the court to suspect that Mike was a serial murderer. He makes a move every 17 years, and the objects are all the women close to him, and they all like the "prop" of stairs.
Undoubtedly, this one-in-a-million coincidence is really imaginative. However, the veterans in the legal team were definitely unwilling to accept this conclusion. The two sides were in a stalemate for a while, and even attracted the attention of the famous detective Li Changyu.
After analysis, the world-famous detective put forward his own opinion: The angle and direction of the blood spatter at the scene were inconsistent with the police's description of Mike's crime process, which meant that Catherine's death did not come from Mike's beating. .
However, the court ultimately did not adopt Li Changyu’s suggestion. It is undeniable that the court did not need to let Li dictate the case because he cared about his reputation. Whether to adopt it or not must be supported by legal principles.
However, at a public press conference, when the police talked about why the judicial system rejected the proposal, the fundamental reason was that "Li is Asian, and we can't understand his Asian accent. I don’t know what he’s talking about” and other ridiculous excuses.
This makes people more doubtful about the authenticity of the case. Even with the defense of a powerful legal team and Li Changyu's blessing, in the end, wealthy Mike was found guilty and sent to prison.
Although Michael Peterson was imprisoned, at the same time, many doubts about the case remained unsolved, such as his means of committing the crime, motive for the murder, and witness and physical evidence.
In other words, did Michael Peterson really kill his wife? Is he really guilty? Or is this just an unjust, false and wrongful case concocted by the judicial authorities?
It's not over yet, it's just begun.
In 2011, blood analyst Duane Deaver was sentenced to long-term perjury and many people were imprisoned unjustly. He did this just to get the answers the police wanted.
Duane Deaver is one of the key witnesses in the Michael Peterson case. In other words, it is unknown how much of the evidence in court is true and how much is false, but the only thing that is certain is that the trial that year was undoubtedly full of loopholes.
In view of this, the court decided to retry Michael Peterson's case, but Michael Peterson refused at first because a retrial meant another tug-of-war over money. At this time, many years of imprisonment have turned Michael Peterson from a middle-aged man into a gray-haired old man, and he does not want to endure any more setbacks. But at the same time, in order to reunite with his family, Michael Peterson did not want to miss this opportunity in vain. Finally, he offered to sign an "Alford Plea Agreement" with the court.
The Alford plea agreement, also known as the Alford plea agreement, is a clause in American litigation. It refers to a guilty plea statement in which the defendant denies his guilt but admits that there is sufficient evidence to prove his guilt. Under this provision, Michael Peterson was allowed to leave prison and become a free man. But is Michael Peterson really innocent? Is he really a murderer created by justice? Or is he just a sophisticated criminal, once again on the loose after committing two horrific murders?
Perhaps only Michael Peterson knows the answer to this question. Today, Michael Peterson is still living a quiet life in North Carolina. He tries to forget the past and spend the rest of his life with his family.
There is a logical "owl theory" about Katherine Atwater's death.
In 2009, during a second examination of the evidence, forensic experts found two pieces of owl down in Katherine Atwater's hands and hair. Therefore, it is inferred that at the time of the crime, Catherine Atwater fell accidentally and then an owl swooped down and attacked her. The wound on her head was caused by an owl's talon.
Television dramas based on true events will always make the audience curious and this genre will always attract people. How will the new American drama "Between the Stairs" bring this case to the screen? Looking forward to the updated plot.