Tem is in Vegas this weekend.
I've been watching this Netflix miniseries 'The Staircase'
I usually don't exactly fall for the crime dramas. The serial season 1 podcast seemed thin and biased, I've heard the same for the show making a murderer. And honestly I thought the same about this series. I saw the blood and of course no one is going to admit they murdered someone.
But then I started thinking what if he actually is innocent. His story goes like this: He and his wife were drinking wine and talking by their pool. She went in to go to bed he stayed by the pool. Later when he went to go to bed he found her in a pile of her own blood by the stairs and called the police.
Whether he murdered his wife or not wouldn't surprise me either way...
But I kept trying to imagine...what if his story is 100% true?
What if I were a 58 year old husband and dad sitting by my own pool near my own home and I went to go to bed and found my wife bloody and dead at the bottom of the stairs? Then all of the sudden I'm stuck in a trial and court dates for two years. I believe there was an estimate in the show mentioning $300,000 for his legal fees. First I lose my wife. Then the world thinks I killed her. Then two years of my life is spent attempting to prove I'm innocent, and it costs me 300k. Then 12 unprofessional strangers look at what two lawyers said about me and make a decision. They give me life in prison with no parole two weeks before I turn 60.
Seven years later when I'm 67 years old the attorney general does an investigation on one of the principal witnesses against me and his investigation research on bloodstain analysis and finds his work awful sloppy and corrupt. Another year goes by and I'm offered a retrial, released from jail on $300,000 bail and placed under house arrest with a tracking anklet. I'm now 68 and I've lost over a half a million dollars.
5 years later I'm 73 years old before the trial was scheduled to start completely over and potentially last another two years my attorney works out a plea deal and I am finally free. Less than a week ago Michael Peterson turned 75.
One day I'm a 58 year old wealthy author sitting by my pool chatting with my wife
In an instant I'm a 75 year old widower and bankrupt.
I missed my grand kids being born, I missed my children's weddings, and I lost my wife.
I'm not saying this guy did or didn't kill his wife...what I am saying is if he didn't this is a sad, sad story.
As I watched episode after episode I noticed one thing, Peterson's family, his brother and his children, were behind him the whole way. They sat in the courtroom through the trial, through the appeal hearings, through it all. They visited him behind thick glass, They supported and shared their lives with him.
Without family, who would be there for him?
Damn I want kids. I want grand kids.
At any moment the police could show up to anyone's door. A hair left on a shirt at a store bought by a murderer, tire treads left on a street later turned crime scene, my dna any number of ways spread all throughout this city...no one is safe and the next thing you know, your freedom is in the hands of some lawyer who may or may not care about the case and 12 strangers pulled off the street.
This is so strange, such a strange world. I wish we had a way of knowing. A 100% true and real lie detector. How many people sit in jail cells this morning completely innocent? How many people sit in their own homes completely guilty?
Bon Iver & St. Vincent - Roslyn
I've been watching this Netflix miniseries 'The Staircase'
I usually don't exactly fall for the crime dramas. The serial season 1 podcast seemed thin and biased, I've heard the same for the show making a murderer. And honestly I thought the same about this series. I saw the blood and of course no one is going to admit they murdered someone.
But then I started thinking what if he actually is innocent. His story goes like this: He and his wife were drinking wine and talking by their pool. She went in to go to bed he stayed by the pool. Later when he went to go to bed he found her in a pile of her own blood by the stairs and called the police.
Whether he murdered his wife or not wouldn't surprise me either way...
But I kept trying to imagine...what if his story is 100% true?
What if I were a 58 year old husband and dad sitting by my own pool near my own home and I went to go to bed and found my wife bloody and dead at the bottom of the stairs? Then all of the sudden I'm stuck in a trial and court dates for two years. I believe there was an estimate in the show mentioning $300,000 for his legal fees. First I lose my wife. Then the world thinks I killed her. Then two years of my life is spent attempting to prove I'm innocent, and it costs me 300k. Then 12 unprofessional strangers look at what two lawyers said about me and make a decision. They give me life in prison with no parole two weeks before I turn 60.
Seven years later when I'm 67 years old the attorney general does an investigation on one of the principal witnesses against me and his investigation research on bloodstain analysis and finds his work awful sloppy and corrupt. Another year goes by and I'm offered a retrial, released from jail on $300,000 bail and placed under house arrest with a tracking anklet. I'm now 68 and I've lost over a half a million dollars.
5 years later I'm 73 years old before the trial was scheduled to start completely over and potentially last another two years my attorney works out a plea deal and I am finally free. Less than a week ago Michael Peterson turned 75.
One day I'm a 58 year old wealthy author sitting by my pool chatting with my wife
In an instant I'm a 75 year old widower and bankrupt.
I missed my grand kids being born, I missed my children's weddings, and I lost my wife.
I'm not saying this guy did or didn't kill his wife...what I am saying is if he didn't this is a sad, sad story.
As I watched episode after episode I noticed one thing, Peterson's family, his brother and his children, were behind him the whole way. They sat in the courtroom through the trial, through the appeal hearings, through it all. They visited him behind thick glass, They supported and shared their lives with him.
Without family, who would be there for him?
Damn I want kids. I want grand kids.
At any moment the police could show up to anyone's door. A hair left on a shirt at a store bought by a murderer, tire treads left on a street later turned crime scene, my dna any number of ways spread all throughout this city...no one is safe and the next thing you know, your freedom is in the hands of some lawyer who may or may not care about the case and 12 strangers pulled off the street.
This is so strange, such a strange world. I wish we had a way of knowing. A 100% true and real lie detector. How many people sit in jail cells this morning completely innocent? How many people sit in their own homes completely guilty?
Bon Iver & St. Vincent - Roslyn