PILOT SPIN
Spin Zone => Spin Zone => Topic started by: Rush on September 01, 2022, 05:58:32 AM
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Any of you living around NC in 2001-2003 probably know all about this case. Or it even got national attention along with the Scott / Laci Peterson case. Back then I said, “What is it about Peterson men, they kill their wives.”
Netflix has released a documentary called “The Staircase”. A team had filmed the case from the start in real time as it happened and we get to see the story unfold. Back in the day I thought he was guilty. After watching this and after learning about the new owl theory I am totally convinced Michael Peterson is innocent as the day is long.
For example, when we find out that a close friend of his, Elizabeth Ratliff, the mother of what ended up his two adopted daughters, had also died falling down stairs, I said well that seals it, he killed them both. That can’t be a coincidence.
But wait a minute. When that happened back in 1985, both the U.S. military and the German examiners determined she died of natural causes, a cerebral hemorrhage second to a blood disorder she had.
So the Durham prosecutors exhumed her body which had been sent home and buried in Texas. They schlepped her corpse from Texas all the way to Durham NC so she could be re-autopsied by the same medical examiner that did Kathleen, who seems to be biased in favor of the prosecution. The defense wanted a neutral examiner in Texas but the Durham DA would not allow it.
Here’s the thing, the Durham examiner, a Ms. Radish (spelling?) said Elizabeth Ratliff died of “homicide”. This is inappropriate for the circumstances. The theory is that Peterson pushed her down the stairs. The supposed evidence for homicide is blunt force injury on her head. But you cannot say that. She could have fallen on her own and gotten the blunt force injury. The report should only have concluded head injury, or actually, intracranial bleeding. The original autopsy determined the intracranial bleeding was due to a natural hemorrhage preceding the fall. It caused her to fall and then she bumped her head.
But in defense of the prosecution the lacerations on Kathleen’s head seem impossible to have been caused by a mere fall. Obviously something else happened. But the “blow poke theory” also didn’t really fit. Both the defense and the prosecution were actually correct in that their opposition was wrong, but neither considered a third possibility, which no one would have at the time. It took a sharp thinking neighbor to finally solve the puzzle.
I can easily see why the jury convicted him. He was not a sympathetic figure. Not good looking, not charismatic, had some sordid sexual perversions, and was a rich white male and let me put it this way: I don’t think any of the jurors were rich white males. But the kicker was the NC SBI’s blood spatter evidence that the jury said pushed them over the fence to a conviction. That evidence turned out to be bogus and the SBI investigator was fired, having gotten other innocent people convicted on false testimony. The corruption in the NC justice system is why I reversed my position on the death penalty years ago.
When I first heard the owl theory I thought that’s crazy! But after looking into it, I learned those things will attack people’s heads and claw you viciously. There were owl feathers found in Kathleen’s hair. I believe now it is the only thing that fits the physical evidence. And it totally explains why both the prosecution and the defense put on utterly pathetic, not very believable arguments.
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What is it with prosecutors in Durham. Remember the Duke Lacrosse team case?
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What is it with prosecutors in Durham. Remember the Duke Lacrosse team case?
It gets better. Michael Peterson had published several editorials criticizing the very district attorney who brought the murder charge and the Durham police department who arrived on the scene of the murder. They were all too happy to declare him the killer and not investigate any other possibilities.
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Maybe the dike prosecutor hates white men.
Wouldn’t be the first prosecution for being white male and straight by a compromised jerk.
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Maybe the dike prosecutor hates white men.
Wouldn’t be the first prosecution for being white male and straight by a compromised jerk.
The original prosecutor was a white male but the one for the hearing for the retrial was a black female. The judge was a black male but I don’t think he was biased, after all he threw out the conviction and gave Peterson a new trial when the SBI perjury came to light. It looked like about half the jury was black, but you can’t assume race prejudiced their judgment. On the other hand blacks have for a hundred years claimed that white juries are prejudiced against black defendants. If you believe prejudice goes one way you must believe it goes the other way too. Blacks would have even more reason to “stick it to whitey” to make up for the past.
But again I can’t assume any individual was racially biased. They may all have been people of integrity. I suspected that the gay porn and alleged cheating biased them but one of the jurors said that during deliberation they specifically excluded that, as well as the Ratliff case, as both were irrelevant, and focused on the blood spatter testimony.
If we are truly entitled to a jury “of our peers” shouldn’t we have a jury of people similarly aligned with our socioeconomic status? Educational level? Maybe race and gender but not necessarily. If I were to go on trial I’d want a jury consisting of libertarians and MAGA supporters full stop and wouldn’t give a damn if they were black, white, male or female.
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I found the jury. 4 white and 8 black, 7 female and 5 male. I think ALL these people are Democrats including the entire Peterson family. After all they live in Durham which went 80% for Biden in 2020.
White female -- 37 -- employee at the Duke Clinical research institute -- married with two children
Black female -- 55 -- owns an accounting and tax preparation business -- divorced with two children
Black female -- 19 -- department store salesperson -- single
White female -- 55 --nurse -- married with five children
Black female -- 37 -- correctional officer -- married mother of two
White female -- 37 -- nurse -- married with one child
Black female -- 61 -- department store salesperson -- widow with no children
Black male -- 64 -- computer operations supervisor -- married with two children
Black male -- 70 -- 20 year Navy career
White male -- 47 nurse -- married with one child
Black male -- 54 -- regulatory officer for state Utilities Commission -- married with three children
Black male -- 44 -- former Air Force officer -- married with one child
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I found the jury.
Good grief. I would hate to be judged by that crew.