In final arguments the prosecutor had one last chance to convince the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, that Kathleen Peterson did NOT die in an accidental fall.

Prosecutor: How in the world can somebody get 38 injuries over their face back head and hands arms and wrists by falling down some steps? Even if there are two falls. There is absolutely no way that makes common sense.

Then the defense’s last argument:

Dave Rudolf, defense attorney: The real issue, the one that you need to focus on,  is whether the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt with proof that fully satisfies and entirely convinces you that on the morning of Dec. 9^th 2001 Michael Peterson beat Kathleen Peterson to death with a blow poke in that narrow stairway that you saw weeks ago. That’s it. That’s the issue.

After more than three-and-a-half months of trial, the jurors would finally decide the fate of Michael Peterson. We spoke to 11 of the 12 jurors—among them: an accountant, a correctional officer, two retail sales people, a shipping coordinator, two computer operations specialists, a telecomunications analyst, and three nurses. 

Dennis Murphy, Dateline correspondent: Did you try to read his face, his demeanor, as he sat in the courtroom before you?

Betty, juror: Looking at him you were not able to read him one way or the other. He was almost expressionless at times.

Keith, juror: You really would like to believe that nobody is capable of doing what this man was accused of.

The jurors were understandably shaken by the crime scene photos in the stairwell.

Kris, juror: The first pictures we saw were overwhelming, of Mrs. Peterson in the hall and all the blood on the walls.  I thought it was a tremendous amount of blood.

Kelly, juror: I couldn’t imagine anyone receiving those types of wounds unless they fell from a very tall building.

Shirley, juror: I’ve seen people hemorrhage, but I’ve never seen that kind of hemorrhage from someone’s head.

But they also acknowledged that accidents happen with sometimes unpredictable results.

Shirley: Well, people do fall to their deaths, that’s true.

Murphy: Did you think maybe it might have happened the way the defense lawyer described it?

Juror: Yes, I think there were times throughout the trial that I personally moved from one side to the other with regard to guilt or innocence.

Murphy: Maybe she did fall. Maybe she did fall and maybe there was some confrontation.

Betty: All these things are possible, weird things happen, freak things happen and maybe you know, maybe she did fall.  And you know there is proof given to us that she was on these medications and she was wearing flip flops and they had been drinking wine.  I really thought in my heart maybe this is an accident.

They took a first straw vote to see where everyone stood, and it turned out they were utterly divided—four guilty, three not guilty, five undecided. They went over the case again.

Several of the jurors who years earlier had watched the OJ Simpson case on national TV, felt that the defense’s medical examiner, reknown Dr. Henry Lee, who played a prominent role in the OJ trial would clear it up for them.

Tania, juror: When I found out he was coming, I expected for some reason, for him to solve it.

Murphy: Dr. Lee explains all?

Tania: Yeah.

Kelly: I was probably more disappointed in him because. He could not definitely conclude, with, without a shadow of a doubt on his part that this was not a beating.

And if there was a beating some jurors weren’t at all sure the blowpoke was the murder weapon.

Betty: We were just blown out of the water with the blow poke, the blow poke, through the entire trial. I never believed that the blow poke was the weapon.

For some jurors, visiting the staircase during the field trip to the Peterson mansion helped them to determine whether the blow poke had been used.

Tanya: I don’t think you could swing it in that area- it was too small of an area so I had total disregard that the blow poke was used. It was too narrow of a staircase.

Murphy: So that’s points for the defense right?

Tanya: Yes, yes it was.

Keith: But with that it was such a narrow space drunk or sober, I think you could have stopped yourself from sustaining so much damage falling down the steps.

Murphy: Are you saying it backfired?

Keith: Right, to me it did.

And what about the prosecutor’s motive for the crime? Debt piling up, family stress?

Kelly: Well, along with everyone else, and I think it’s kind of a consensus, we did feel that were financial stressors.

Was Brad, the male prostitute Peterson had tried to set up a date with, more evidence to the jury of a perfect domestic storm?

Richard: Brad was extremely self assured he appeared to be proud of what he did. His testimony was a definite rebuttal to the defense’s “soulmate” argument.

And what about Michael Peterson’s sexuality?

Murphy: Do you think she knew about his interest in homosexuality?

Keith: I think she knew. I think she knew before that night.

Betty: We’ll never know. All of it happened behind closed doors.

You might be surprised to learn that Germany—the near parallel death of Elizabeth Ratliff on a staircase 18-years before was not a factor in deliberations. One of their first group decisions was to dismiss the other death altogether.

Shirley: We decided that we had enough to deal with at 1810 cedar street and not to really talk about the death in Germany.

Murphy: But it is very very interesting, you must all agree,  that one man would have two women in his life both dead at the bottom of the stairs with suspicious injuries?

Shirley: And we did all agree that that was somewhat suspicious but we didn’t know if we could go any farther with that.

Keith: There were some similarities in the autopsy, which made it harder to set it aside.

So many ambiguities: Red Neurons, blood stains on the wall, dueling experts on the cause of death, interpretation of injuries. Could they reach a decision as instructed by the judge, certain beyond a reasonable doubt about what happened in that stairwell?

Betty: We really didn’t have the usual things. We didn’t have a murder weapon.

Murphy: You didn’t have a confession...

Betty: We didn’t have a confession, we didn’t have a clear-cut motive.

After hours of debate, they kept coming back to one single exhibit: the autopsy photos of the back of Kathleen’s head.

Murphy: By a show of hands who thought that the medical examiner photo of the injury to Mrs. Peterson was as convincing as anything else you heard in trial?

Jurors: (All Raise Hands)

Friday morning at 11 a.m., four-days after getting the case, the jury announced it had reached a verdict.

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