Did Michael Peterson kill his wife Kathleen?

Michael Iver Peterson is a murderer who was convicted in 2003 of the December 9, 2001, murder of his second wife, Kathleen Peterson.

On December 9, 2001, Peterson called 911 to say that he had just discovered Kathleen unconscious in their Forest Hills neighbourhood house in Durham, North Carolina and that he feared she had fallen down the steps.

Deborah Radisch, the medical examiner, found that Kathleen died as a result of scalp lacerations produced by a homicidal assault. According to Radisch, the seven lacerations on Kathleen’s top and back of her head were caused by repeated hits with a light, yet hard, instrument.

On October 10, 2003, following one of the state’s longest trials, a Durham County jury found Peterson guilty of Kathleen’s murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Michael Peterson always maintained his innocence and after eight years, Peterson was given a new trial after a judge found that a key prosecution witness provided false testimony. Peterson entered an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter in 2017.  Peterson was held at the Nash Correctional Institution near Rocky Mount until December 16, 2011, when he was released.