in the books, it goes down as a guilty plea. >> in february of 2017, 73-year-old michael peterson arrived at the durham county courthouse for what would be the final chapter of this saga. he was there to take that alford plea. pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. kathleen's daughter caitlin came to durham to see it happen. and of course kathleen's sister candace was there. she ran into michael's chief defender outside the courthouse. >> oh, david, good to see you today. pleading guilty. pleading guilty. thank you, that's what i've always wanted. >> actually we're not pleading guilty. >> you're pleading guilty. alford "schmalford." guilt. >> michael peterson, he'd like to walk around and proclaim his innocence, but he can't. he can play with words but he can't play with the facts. >> the courtroom was eerily reminiscent of the 2003 trial, packed with tv cameras. >> everybody's a little bit older, but there's so much that's the same.