my opinion is that this is scene of a beating. he was a star witness for the prosecution in the peterson trial, the blood pattern expert who put michael peterson in the staircase bludgeoning his wife, reporter julia sims. you talked to the jurors here in this case, julia. how important was the blood expert, deaver s testimony? that blood evidence was critical. here s a guy who has been doing this for years for the state. look at what his experiment showed. it s got to be the truth. he d been key in other cases, too. the newspaper recounted the story of a man who was sent to prison for murder after deaver s lab report suggested a stain on the man s car was the victim s blood. and it turned out not to be blood. wasn t blood at all. huh-uh, no. and deaver knew, and didn t disclose it? deaver knew that that was not blood and didn t disclose it. that man s conviction was overturned. gregory f. taylor is innocent of the charge of first-degree murder.
in the summer of 2003, michael peterson would stand trial for the bludgeoning death of his wife, kathleen. he d pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. i am innocent of these charges, and we will prove it in court. with gavel-to-gavel coverage on live tv, the state versus michael peterson was a national spectacle. was it surreal, michael, to be in a courtroom charged with murder? well, it was surreal from the first moment. i mean, you know, is there surreal beyond surreal? i don t know. reporter julia sims covered the proceedings in court. every single day of that trial the courtroom was packed, and not packed with just media, and not packed with just lawyers, but people off the street. people took vacation to come in and watch that trial. and michael peterson didn t shy away from all the attention. in fact, he allowed a documentary crew to film him every step of the way. but the only audience that mattered was the 12-person jury.
on a beautiful blue sky day, the remains of elizabeth ratliff were exhumed from their resting place in texas. julia sims, the reporter who covered the story from the beginning. and the bells started tolling right as they started pulling that casket out of the the ground. hmm. a lot of people were very antsy about that, about what they were gonna find. her body was driven to north carolina where it would be studied by the same medical examiner who d ruled kathleen peterson s death a homicide. r there was a risk here, wasn t there? if you opened that coffin and found that the authorities in germany had been correct in ruling it a death by natural causes. we just decided that it needed to be done. roll the dice, basically. exactly. reporter: the detective the detective peered through a morgue window as the top was pried off elizabeth ratliff s coffin. it was so airtight it was hard to use the crank to get the casket to open. once it was raised you could see par
reporter: he was a star witness for the prosecution in the peterson trial, the blood pattern expert who put michael peterson in the staircase bludgeoning his wife, reporter julia sims. you talked to the jurors here in this case, julia. how important was the blood expert, deaver s testimony? that blood evidence was critical. here s a guy who has boon been doing this for years for the state. look at what his experiment showed. it s got to be the truth. reporter: he d been key in other cases, too. the newspaper recounted the story of a man who was sent to prison for murder after deaver s lab report suggested a stain on the man s car was the victim s blood. and it turned out not to be blood. wasn t blood at all. huh-uh, no. and deaver knew, and didn t disclose it? deaver knew that that was not blood and didn t disclose it. reporter: that man s conviction was overturned. gregory f. taylor is innocent of the charge of first-degree murder. reporter: and there was more
oh, we cared about that. reporter: it turns out one of the experts at the center of the storm is a name you ve heard before, special agent duane deaver. remember him? my opinion is that this is scene of a beating. reporter: he was a star witness for the prosecution in the peterson trial, the blood pattern expert who put michael peterson in the staircase bludgeoning his wife, reporter julia sims. you talked to the jurors here in this case, julia. how important was the blood expert, deaver s testimony? that blood evidence was critical. here s a guy who has boon been doing this for years for the state. look at what his experiment showed. it s got to be the truth. reporter: he d been key in other cases, too. the newspaper recounted the story of a man who was sent to prison for murder after deaver s lab report suggested a stain on the man s car was the victim s blood. and it turned out not to be blood. wasn t blood at all. huh-uh, no. and deaver knew, and didn t disclose