In 2001, French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for the film Murder on a Sunday Morning, about the wrongful murder conviction of a 15-year-old black teenager named Brenton Butler. The documentary offered a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the uphill battle waged by Butler's two public defenders, who fought to prove their young client's innocence against damning evidence – an eye witness's positive ID and Butler's own false, coerced confession.
For his next documentary, de Lestrade wanted to explore how the justice system works for a...
For his next documentary, de Lestrade wanted to explore how the justice system works for a...
- 6/11/2018
- Rollingstone.com
"There's no murder weapon, there's no motive," a voiceover says in the new trailer for Netflix's relaunch of The Staircase. But in the case of crime novelist Michael Peterson, who was charged and convicted of the murder of his wife Kathleen, things aren't always so cut-and-dry in the judicial system.
The Staircase originally aired in 2004. Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who was granted complete access to the case, crafted the series around crime novelist and accused killer, Michael Peterson. Lestrade chronicled Peterson's battle to clear his name after Kathleen was...
The Staircase originally aired in 2004. Director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who was granted complete access to the case, crafted the series around crime novelist and accused killer, Michael Peterson. Lestrade chronicled Peterson's battle to clear his name after Kathleen was...
- 5/22/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Long before Netflix got into the true-crime game and chilling podcasts gripped the country’s collective consciousness, there was HBO’s seminal series “The Staircase.” Directed by Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the original series followed accused killer Michael Peterson and his 16-year judicial battle to clear his name in the killing of wife Kathleen, found dead at the bottom of family home’s staircase. The 2001 crime was already a weird one — Peterson was a crime novelist, the cops instantly sniffed at his story that Kathleen’s fall was an accident — and it got still stranger when it was revealed that Peterson was associated with yet another woman who died…at the bottom of a staircase.
De Lestrade was granted intimate access to the trial that ensued, plus Peterson’s near-decade-long stint behind bars, which formed the gripping original series. In 2013, “The Staircase II: The Last Chance” arrived,...
De Lestrade was granted intimate access to the trial that ensued, plus Peterson’s near-decade-long stint behind bars, which formed the gripping original series. In 2013, “The Staircase II: The Last Chance” arrived,...
- 5/22/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Before “The Jinx,” “Making a Murderer,” or “Serial,” there was “The Staircase.” Originally released in 2004, the true crime documentary followed Michael Peterson, a wealthy author and former journalist accused of murdering his wife, Kathleen, in their Raleigh, N.C., mansion. But what might have appeared to be a cut and dry case soon blossomed into something more complicated, as secrets began to trickle out during the trial. “The Staircase” was full of multiple, incredulous twists — including the staircase-related death of Peterson’s adopted daughters’ mother many years prior — which proved once again that sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction.
Peterson was found guilty in 2003 of his wife’s murder, and he spent eight years in prison before another incredible twist came, which led to a follow-up documentary, “The Staircase II: The Last Chance,” in 2013. The prosecution’s blood spatter expert was found to have committed perjury, and Peterson...
Peterson was found guilty in 2003 of his wife’s murder, and he spent eight years in prison before another incredible twist came, which led to a follow-up documentary, “The Staircase II: The Last Chance,” in 2013. The prosecution’s blood spatter expert was found to have committed perjury, and Peterson...
- 4/29/2018
- by Jamie Righetti
- Indiewire
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