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AMERICAN MORNING
Novelist on Trial
Aired July 15, 2003 - 08:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to a dramatic murder trial in North Carolina. Novelist Michael Peterson is accused of killing his wife Kathleen in December of 2001. The defense says her death was a horrible accident from a fall down the stairs. But prosecutors claim Peterson beat his wife to death and then made it look accidental. They played Peterson's 911 call in court last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL PETERSON: She's still breathing.
OPERATOR: What kind of accident?
PETERSON: She fell down the stairs.
OPERATOR: Is she conscious?
PETERSON: Huh?
OPERATOR: Is she conscious?
PETERSON: No, she's not conscious.
OPERATOR: How many stairs did she fall down?
OPERATOR: Huh?
OPERATOR: How many stairs?
PETERSON: Down the stairs!
OPERATOR: How many stairs?
Calm down, sir. Calm down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Prosecutors say the motive was money, mainly a million dollar-plus insurance policy. Vinnie Politan is covering the case for Court TV, and he joins us this morning from Durham, North Carolina.
Nice to see you, Vinnie. Thanks for joining us this morning.
VINNIE POLITAN, COURT TV: Good morning, how are you doing?
O'BRIEN: I'm doing great, thanks. Michael Peterson is a novelist. He's a former newspaper columnist. He's a little bit of a celebrity there in Durham, North Carolina.
Back in 2001, when he first called 911 and first reported this to the police, were there questions about his story that early on?
POLITAN: Well, according to police, it was that night when they got very suspicious because of what they saw at the scene. They saw so much blood at the scene they didn't believe it was consistent with an accident. So initially, they were they were questioning what happened that night, and within 11 days, they indicted him for murder.
O'BRIEN: I want to talk more about the motive. Prosecutors say it was financial, but for many people's perception, the couple was well off.
POLITAN: They really were. According to the defense, they had a net worth of $2.1 million, a number that the prosecution says was lower, probable a little bit lower, about $1.6 million, and when you're trying to tell a jury that these people have financial difficulty and they have that much net worth, it's really a tough sell.
O'BRIEN: All right, so Peterson says his wife fell down the stairs. What exactly are prosecutors alleging happened that night?
POLITAN: They say that he grabbed some sort of fire poker and bludgeoned her to death, hitting her head at least seven times, creating seven lacerations on the back of her head which caused a lot of bleeding at the scene, at the bottom of the staircase, and they say that's what happened, that he wanted to get to that $1.8 million in benefits that she got as a result of her death, and that was the motive and that's what happened that night.
O'BRIEN: So far , they relied heavily on the 911 tape they played in court, and we just played a snippet of it as we were introducing you. What was Peterson's reaction when they played the tape back?
POLITAN: Really, that's when we saw emotion from Michael Peterson. It was played twice. The first time it was played by the defense during their opening statement, and during that time, Michael Peterson was really breaking down. The second time, he also got a little choked up, but more so were his children in the front row that really was a difficult time for them. Then when court broke after that 911 tape was played, Michael Peterson, who is out on bail, came back and was helping his children, sort of giving them a source of strength.
O'BRIEN: Vinnie, we don't have a ton of time, but I want to talk briefly about some other odd parallels to another woman in Michael Peterson's life, 18 years ago, who died from a similar circumstance that the defense is alleging, falling down the stairs.
POLITAN: Yes, well, what the prosecution says that this woman, Liz Ratliff, who was a friend of Michael Peterson's and his wife, his first wife, 18 years ago in Germany, was found dead at the bottom of the staircase. The prosecution in this case, from North Carolina, had their that body exhumed, and the medical examiner now says it was a homicide. Eighteen years ago it was ruled an accidental death, some sort of cerebral hemorrhage. Now the prosecutors here will use evidence of that death, saying Michael Peterson is responsible for killing that woman, 18 years ago, and also responsible for killing his wife in the same manner here in North Carolina.
O'BRIEN: Hey, Vinnie, final question for you, how long are they expecting this will take before it wraps up?
POLITAN: This trial will take some time. They're talking about it going into the fall now, September, October, maybe even November.
O'BRIEN: Vinnie Politan, thanks for joining us, as always. Nice see you.
POLITIAN: OK, Soledad.
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