On 9 December 2001, novelist Michael Peterson dialled 911 to tell the police that his wife had fallen down the stairs, and was unconscious. When the ambulance arrived five minutes later she was dead, lying in a pool of blood.
This astonishing eight-part series documents the trial of Peterson in Durham, North Carolina. Granted access to the defence team, the filmmaker is able to show us in detail the meetings between Peterson and his lawyers. But we also discover the strategy of the prosecution.
I don't really feel that I'm allowed to reveal much more of the story - but there are two astounding twists towards the middle, and the series will keep you stuck to your seat throughout.
We may be used to suspense in American courtroom dramas, courtesy of Raymond Burr. But Death on the Staircase has something else - it examines whether juries are ever capable of reaching a verdict based on more-or-less objective considerations. Can it be that jurors are merely motivated by their own prejudices?
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, who won an Oscar for his last courtroom film set in America, Murder on a Sunday Morning, is prudently cautious in coming to any conclusions. But he makes you worried about such matters.
At a time when at long last the British are opening up some courts to public view, this series is a must see. But it is also a landmark in the history of documentaries. Nothing John Grisham wrote was ever half as good as this.
