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This man pleaded guilty for a
crime an owl actually committed

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Do you now personally plead guilty
pursuant to the Alford case? Yes, sir

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Michael Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife, Kathleen
Peterson. Hundreds and now millions of people will see this and judge me

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He claimed she fell down the stairs, but the case
took an unexpected turn when an alternative theory

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known as the owl theory, emerged, suggesting
that Kathleen had been murdered by an owl

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It's a lot more plausible that they all did it than I did
it. On the night of December 9th, 2001, Peterson called 911

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reporting that he had found Kathleen
unconscious at the bottom of their staircase

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911, where's your market? 1810 Cedar Street, please.
What's wrong? My wife had an exodus. She's still breathing

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He claimed she had been drinking and must have fallen while he was
outside. He is a person who knows how to create a fictional plot

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However, investigators were suspicious of the
amount of blood, the pattern of the splatter

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and the deep lacerations on Kathleen's skull,
which led them to believe she had been beaten

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to death. I wasn't focusing on the blood. I was focusing on Kathleen
lying there, picking her up, holding her, watching her die and

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her breathing just fade and fade away. The owl theory suggested
that Kathleen had been attacked by an owl outside, before running

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inside, falling and hitting her head. In my opinion, she was hit, the bird
hit, realized it had made a mistake, and it went flying away into the night

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This theory gained traction due to the discovery of
microscopic owl feathers and a wooden slither in her hair

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as well as the pattern of her scalp lacerations, which some experts
argued resembled talon wounds rather than injuries from a weapon

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One two three like that there While some forensic experts found it plausible it was never formally pursued in
court We have owls in the neighborhood and the wounds that I was shown leads me to think something else happened

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Peterson's case was further complicated by
the 1985 death of his friend Elizabeth Ratliff

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who was found dead at the bottom of a
staircase under similar circumstances

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Elizabeth was the biological mother of two of
Peterson's adopted daughters, Margaret and Martha

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There was never a moment which it would have
made sense for my dad to have been guilty

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Though her death was initially ruled
accidental due to a brain hemorrhage

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a later autopsy changed the cause to homicide. They didn't actually
show the part of my mom's brain that had a brain hemorrhage

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which is why she died. Peterson had been
the last known person to see her alive

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having helped her put her children to bed the night before she was
found. Her death was never described as anything other than natural

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Peterson was found guilty of manslaughter. We the 12 members of the
jury unanimously find a defendant to be guilty of first degree murder

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But his conviction was overturned in 2011 after
it was revealed that a key prosecution witness

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Dwayne Diva, had given misleading testimony. There's no evidence. There
was no reason for me to kill her. There was no weapon. There was nothing

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After being granted a retrial, Peterson submitted
an Alford plea, maintaining his innocence

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He was sentenced to time served and released. Do you
now personally plead guilty pursuant to the Alford case

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Yes, in which you say, okay, there's enough
evidence here to convict me, but I'm innocent

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He later became a columnist and a novelist
known for criticizing law enforcement

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Following his legal battles, Peterson published a
memoir behind the staircase, detailing his experiences