Michael Peterson Jury
stargazer
kept changing in the jury room, and they were surprised that they all agreed
in the end on the verdict. The jury does not want to discuss the Ratliff
matter at this time, but perhaps will discuss their feelings on it 'later.'
The jurors said they would speak in about a week.
sg
tinydancer/stargazer
based their decision upon. In their news conference, almost to a person,
they mentioned the autopsy photo's, the injuries to the back of Kathleen's
head, and said they would 'haunt them for the rest of their lives.'
Ted Kerin
According to today's paper, all 12 jurors immediately agreed that it was a
homicide, not an accident. Which is kinda stunning, even though the final
result didn't shock me.
The remainder of the time was discussion about premeditation and motive --
in other words, Peterson's state of mind, and whether "first degree" murder
was the appropriate charge. One key moment was when the judge's charge was
re-read, explaining that "premeditation" can take place in just a few
moments. It was also suggested that even after beginning the attack,
Peterson had time to stop, short of killing Kathleen (something I never
thought about).
Ted Kerin
"Ted Kerin" <tf.k...@gte.net> wrote in message
news:bmk6i...@enews2.newsguy.com...
>
> According to today's paper, all 12 jurors immediately agreed that it was a
>
....and it seems to contradict another News & Observer article, from 3 days
ago, based on talking with one juror. That article began:
DURHAM -- When the seven women and five men who were to decide Mike
Peterson's fate began to deliberate Monday, the first thing they did was
take a vote.
On a slip of paper, each juror wrote where he or she stood and deposited the
ballots in a bright yellow box.
Three said not guilty.
Four said guilty.
Five were undecided.
Ted Kerin
fact that
the real argument wasn't whether Peterson killed her, but rather whether it
was "first degree" murder. Those who initially voted "not guilty" (or
undecided) had doubts about "first degree", not about Peterson killing
Kathleen.
Mark Fenster
Some additional information on the jury's decision...
Fenster
*************************************************
Peterson jurors speak out
BY VIRGINIA BRIDGES : The Herald-Sun
vbri...@heraldsun.com
Oct 15, 2003 : 12:46 am ET
DURHAM -- Lilar Pennington was the only juror who said she looked at
Michael Peterson when the jury came back Friday with its verdict.
"I did," she said to the row of reporters and cameras facing her and
the 12 other jurors in the grand jury room Tuesday at the Durham
County Courthouse. "I saw pain. I saw agony. I saw his family broken."
Pennington, a 61-year-old department store worker, said she just
wanted to hug the Ratliff sisters, who crumbled in grief as each juror
stood to confirm his or her vote. The seven-woman, five-man jury found
Michael Peterson guilty Friday of the first-degree murder of his wife,
Kathleen Peterson.
Yet, despite their sympathy for Michael Peterson's family, the jurors
said they stood by the decision to send the 59-year-old novelist,
former Herald-Sun columnist and former mayoral candidate to jail for
the rest of his life. The jurors came together for the first time
Tuesday at an afternoon news conference.
"We know we made the right decision," said Shirley Ferrell, a
56-year-old nurse.
Before deliberations began, two jurors and the remaining alternate
were dismissed.
Dorothea Waters, who was a juror up until the deliberations, said it
hurt to be whisked away without being able to say goodbye to her
fellow jurors. Waters was dismissed because of her ties to a witness.
"I felt I had birthed a baby and that child was taken from me," she
said. "I had highs and lows, depression, sadness, and yet [felt]
thankful that I didn't have to say yes or no."
When the deliberations began Oct. 6, the jurors said the vote was
split.
Five were undecided, four thought Michael Peterson was guilty, and
three thought he was not guilty.
None of them believed that Kathleen Peterson accidentally fell down
the stairs, said one of the 13 jurors at the news conference. The
group included two jurors who were dismissed before the deliberations
began and an alternate whose services weren't needed.
As the weeklong deliberations progressed, they moved "from one side to
the other," the jurors said, as they disregarded what one juror
referred to as "bluff," or testimony that they didn't believe related
to their final decision.
Some of the evidence that didn't play a significant part in their
discussion, the jurors said, included that related to the 1985 death
of Elizabeth Ratliff, a friend of Michael Peterson who was found dead
at the bottom of the stairs in her Germany home.
"It was enough to deal with 1810 Cedar Street," one juror said.
The testimony of a former male prostitute Brent Wolgamott -- who said
Peterson contacted him about a proposed homosexual liaison, which
never actually took place -- also wasn't significant, the jurors said.
However, the jury believed the financial stresses were a possible
motive, said Kelli Colgan, a 37-year-old nurse.
In addition, the jury disregarded the prosecution's blow poke theory,
yet they believed Kathleen Peterson was beaten, they said. They also
disregarded the testimony of prosecution witness Saami Shaibani, who
perjured himself by falsely claiming to be associated with Temple
University in Philadelphia.
And they didn't think the testimony of renowned crime-scene analyst
Henry Lee -- who spit out globs of ketchup to show how blood spatters
might have been created in the Peterson home -- was significant.
"I respect [Lee's] positions. I respect who he is, but the fact that
he didn't do any testing himself led me not to give his testimony too
much weight," said Keith Hall, a 44-year-old former Air Force
technician.
The jurors said they were left with the photographs of Kathleen
Peterson's lifeless body on the stairs, the autopsy, the lacerations
to the back of her head, and Michael Peterson's bloody shorts, which
the prosecution claimed showed that he stood over Kathleen Peterson
while beating her.
They deliberated as a family, they said -- sometimes fighting and
sometimes crying.
"At one time or another, every juror shed a tear," said Paul Harrison,
a 64-year-old computer operations specialist at N.C. Central
University.
Forewoman Kristen Jones noted that they examined and re-examined the
autopsy photos.
"We had a lot of discussion about the red neurons and the passing of
time that may have elapsed before she died," said Jones, a 37-year-old
information technology manager at Duke's Clinical Research Center.
"Those were the things that I think drove a lot of our discussion."
The jurors also questioned State Bureau of Investigation Agent Duane
Deaver's experiments, which included beating a Styrofoam head topped
with a bloody sponge, but they felt like there wasn't any other
testimony to refute his conclusions, they said.
On Thursday afternoon, they told the judge they were ready to leave
about 10 minutes before the regular 3 p.m. end of deliberations.
The jurors said 10 of them felt that Michael Peterson was guilty, and
two believed he was not guilty. They went home to sleep on it, and
Colgan said she thought everyone knew that they would come to a
verdict the next day.
Ferrell, however, said she had no idea that they would reach a
decision Friday.
Betty Blackwell, a 56-year-old accountant, said she went home and laid
in the hallway with her legs on the steps. Another juror said she
became physically sick, and all said they had problems sleeping.
"Basically, what it boiled down to, with me, was the physical
evidence," Blackwell said.
After the verdict, they left the courthouse, but the image of Kathleen
Peterson's lifeless body remained, they said. Some said they have
flashbacks about the wounds to the back of her head, the way she
looked in the pictures, her lifeless body on the stairs, her partially
opened eyes and her bruised face.
Harrison said he remembers the help of the court employees and Judge
Orlando F. Hudson.
And Ferrell remembers the Peterson family's devastation after the
verdict.
The jurors said they had problems finding evidence to meet all five
aspects of first-degree murder, but the forewoman continually asked
them to reread their notes defining premeditation, malice, cause,
deliberation and intent.
"I was happy with it," said Harrison, who made his decision Thursday
after looking at the elements, which he said leave room for
interpretation. "I told my jury partners 'I can look him in the eye
and tell him he is guilty.' "
Mark Fenster
> "tinydancer/stargazer" <tinyd...@nospam.com> wrote in message news:<SS2jb.12950$lk1....@bignews3.bellsouth.net>...
> > Says it was the autopsy photo's and viewing the scene of the crime that they
> > based their decision upon. In their news conference, almost to a person,
> > they mentioned the autopsy photo's, the injuries to the back of Kathleen's
> > head, and said they would 'haunt them for the rest of their lives.'
>
Below, a bit more information on the jury's decision...
Michael Peterson transferred to prison in Nash County
BY MARK SCHULTZ
msch...@heraldsun.com; 419-6646
Oct 16, 2003 : 1:08 pm ET
Convicted murderer Michael Peterson was transferred this morning from
Central Prison in Raleigh to Nash Correctional Institution in
Nashville, N.C.
"He finished his diagnostic process, and he has been placed in his
long-term assignment," said Mildred Spearman, spokeswoman for the N.C.
Department of Correction.
Nash Correctional Institution is both a close- and medium-security
facility, she said. It houses approximately 614 adult male inmates,
according to the Department of Correction Web site.
The prison will hold a brief media tour Friday because "so many"
outlets that covered Peterson's lengthy trial have asked for pictures,
she said.
Reporters will not be allowed to talk with Peterson, she said.
"He will be there, but you probably won't see him," she said.
Peterson, who will turn 60 on Thursday, is being housed in a single
cell. He has access to a day room with the up to 75 other inmates on
his cell block from about 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Spearman said. He wears
the standard prison uniform of a brown shirt, white undershirt and
brown pants.
He is allowed up to three visitors Saturday or Sunday, depending on
his cell block. Visiting hours are from 8 to 11 a.m. or 1 to 4 p.m.
Peterson was convicted Friday of first-degree murder in the death of
his second wife, Nortel Networks executive Kathleen Peterson, Dec. 9,
2001.
The Durham writer, former Herald-Sun columnist and mayoral candidate
did not testify during his 63-day trial. He had maintained from a 911
call the night of Kathleen Peterson's death that his wife had died
after falling down the stairs in the couple's Cedar Street mansion.
On Tuesday, however, jurors said they ruled out the accident theory
from the start. Talking with reporters as a group, the jurors said the
amount of blood spilled on the staircase and the numerous deep gashes
to the back of Kathleen Peterson's head convinced them that her
husband had fatally beaten her.
Peterson's lawyers David Rudolf and Thomas Maher have said they plan
to appeal the conviction on at least three grounds -- the judge's
decision to admit evidence about Peterson's alleged homosexual
conduct, testimony about Elizabeth Ratliff's 1985 death in Germany and
whether Durham police lacked probable cause to search Peterson's home
immediately following his wife's death.
Spearman said Peterson will be assigned a prison job in about a week.
"It could be anything," she said. "There are lots of different jobs in
prison."