North
Carolina prosecutors say Michael Peterson got fair
trial

Evidence of Michael Peterson's bisexuality and testimony about a death similar to his wife's were relevant in the author's 2003 murder trial, North Carolina prosecutors say. In a filing Tuesday with the state court of appeals, lawyers for the state attorney general's office said Peterson, a Durham novelist, received a fair trial. Peterson, 62, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Nortel Networks executive Kathleen Peterson, whose body was found December 9, 2001, at the bottom of a staircase in the couple's home. Peterson said her death was an accident. In his appeal, Peterson challenged trial rulings by superior court judge Orlando Hudson to allow evidence of Peterson's bisexuality. He also challenged Hudson's decision to allow testimony regarding the similar death 20 years ago of Elizabeth Ratliff in Germany. In their response, assistant attorneys general John G. Barnwell and William B. Crumpler wrote: "The State's case against defendant was not merely convincing; it was powerful." In 1985, Ratliff, a Peterson family friend, was found dead at the bottom of a bloody staircase in her home. Prosecutors said Peterson was the last person to see her alive. Ratliff's death was ruled an accident until Durham prosecutors had her body exhumed and a second autopsy concluded that she had been attacked. Peterson's attorneys said the evidence didn't show that their client was involved in the death. But the prosecutors said that at the very least, Peterson could have learned from Ratliff's death. "This understanding, these lessons, would not have been lost on defendant once he decided to kill Kathleen," the state attorneys wrote. "He had a pattern, a model, that he could follow in creating the illusion of an accident." Peterson's lawyers also argued that prosecutors could not show that his sexual orientation was relevant. Prosecutors argued that the defense opened the door for that testimony when one of Peterson's trial lawyers said the couple had an ideal marriage. "The defendant led two lives," the state's lawyers wrote. "One of them was a sometime novelist...and the socially prominent (and supposedly perfect) husband of Kathleen Peterson. The other was as a homosexual, or bisexual male, with an obsessive interest in male, homosexual pornography.... The existence and revelation of this second and secret life was highly relevant to his motive for murder." A decision on the appeal is not expected until midsummer or later. (AP)