Michael Peterson (author) - Suspicions: A Documentary of The Trial

Suspicions: A Documentary of The Trial

The court case generated widespread interest in part because of a televised documentary variously named Soupçons (Suspicions), Death on the Staircase and The Staircase, which detailed Peterson's legal and personal troubles. The eight X 45 minute documentary was assembled from over 600 hours of footage and comprises eight segments. It was released by Maha Productions in October 2004 and was directed by French filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade. The documentary offers an intimate depiction of defense preparations for the trial. It also examines the role and behavior of the popular press as it covered aspects of the case. The filmmakers started their project within weeks of the December 2001 death and Peterson's murder indictment; jury selection took place in May 2003 with the case itself going to trial in July 2003.

Following the guilty verdict, de Lestrade interviewed the jurors to find why they decided on this verdict. By and large the jurors were swayed by the amount of blood Kathleen lost and the number of lacerations which indicated to them it could not have been an accident. However, Dr. Henry Chang-Yu Lee had testified at the trial that the amount of blood was irrelevant as the blood spatter indicated most of it was coughed up rather than from the wounds themselves. He also suggested some of the blood could have been diluted with urine. Lee had also duplicated blood spatter from coughing for the jury by drinking ketchup and spitting it out.

In April 2012, de Lestrade announced he was making a 120-minute documentary as a follow up to Death on the Staircase. Most of the filming has been completed including film of Peterson's December 2011 hearing. The doumentary will be aired on Canal+ in October 2012. Buyers have expressed interest in both the new documentary and re-licensing the original Death on the Staircase series.