The hottest show on HBO right now is The Staircase- the not quite totally true story of a murder in North Carolina in 2001. It will wrap up next Thursday.
If the title sounds familiar it’s because the case was the subject of an award-winning documentary on Netflix.
About the Staircase
Quick synopsis:
Just before Christmas in 2001, a writer, Michael Peterson, called 911 and said his wife, Kathleen, was lying at the bottom of a staircase barely breathing. She died before the ambulance arrived. He told the paramedics he found her there, the police (almost immediately) claimed he killed her.
He was arrested, charged with murder, hired an all-star defense team, went to trial, was convicted, appealed, lost, appealed again, lost, had the case reopened, was released.
There’s a lot more to it, not the least of which were lies and outright fraud by a CSI lab.
A Few Universal Law Lessons
Hopkins Centrich is, we hope obviously, not a criminal defense firm. But a few things about the case – both real and fictionalized – are universal in the practice of law and the more future clients are aware of them the better. For everyone.
Peterson hired an excellent criminal defense attorney, someone who was a former federal defender, taught at the University of North Carolina School of Law, opened his own firm, and had been practicing as a defense attorney for twenty years at the time of the Peterson case.
Peterson chose a great lawyer, who put together a terrific team.
Then he sabotaged them.
A few months into the investigation the defense team was shocked when the local news broke the story that Peterson had had a series of casual sexual encounters with men for years that his wife may or may not have known about. Either way, the existence of emails and an internet trail provided a motive for the prosecution.
On the eve of trial, Peterman’s attorneys were watching the same local news station when a special news bulletin informed the world and them simultaneously that years earlier, when Peterson was living in Germany, he found his next-door neighbor dead … at the bottom of a staircase.
Peterson’s failure to disclose that little nugget was devastating. The timing was hideous. The defense had to scramble. Peterson’s legal bills went through the roof.
A secondary title for The Staircase could have been, I Didn’t Think it Was Important. (Along with, ‘but it happened so long ago’). Because those were Peterson’s explanations.
There’s a couple of solid pieces of advice in the Peterson case for anyone who needs legal help:
Never surprise your lawyer. You’re not a good judge of what’s important and what’s not. Any secret that you think you’re hiding will eventually come out.
As a client, your best shot at getting to the outcome you want is to give your attorney everything – they’ll sort it out. And never surprise them.
Hopkins Centrich’s attorneys are really good but we’re neither mind readers nor miracle workers.