Fifty-one
In a demonstration for the jury, famed expert Dr. Henry Lee dropped red ink on a white poster to show how the diameter of blood spatter could increase with velocity. The arrival of Dr. Henry Lee had brought out additional media, the courtroom was jammed, and jurors seemed mystified by Dr. Lee’s grace, by his easy smile. Dr. Lee’s opinion covered two days of testimony, September 15 and 16, during which time the forensic expert found many things wrong with the state’s case.
Henry Lee, with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, had built the Connecticut State Police an internationally recognized laboratory. His fame had gone global with his 1995 testimony in the O.J. Simpson trial, and he would be deemed America’s top forensic scientist. People had driven from all parts of the Research Triangle hoping to have a chance to meet him.
Dr. Henry Lee signed copies of his books. His signed autographs.
The man was a legend.
The crime scene analyst would spit up gobs of ketchup to underscore his point that Kathleen may have coughed up blood, testifying that there was “too much blood” for anyone to be able to make exact determinations about what happened in the stairwell. He testified that it was possible that the bloodstain patterns had been caused by Kathleen Peterson shaking her hair, by any variety of motions.
“We have to look at the totality, everything, before we jump to the conclusion that this was a beating,” Dr. Lee told jurors. “To reconstruct, you have to look at the totality. You cannot look at one isolated pattern and make a picture.”
According to Henry Lee, Agent Duane Deaver’s blood spatter experiments were nothing more than “child’s play.” Dr. Lee found Deaver’s work to be rather useless, stating that it would be impossible for anyone to re-create the stairway scene in a laboratory.
“In your opinion,” Rudolf asked, “is the bloodstain evidence consistent with a beating death?”
“No,” Lee said. “Inconsistent with.”
Dr. Lee focused on the outside of the stairwell. He testified about the three “points of origin” in space, saying that the blood source could have come from anywhere, from someone’s head hitting a surface, from someone coughing. Lee explained that, in his view, a point of origin was not necessarily a point of impact.
He testified that anything could have created the blood spatter, that the three points of origin did not mean that a beating had occurred. Dr. Lee disagreed with Agent Deaver’s opinion that the particular spatter on the wall—in the corner of the stairwell—came from someone beating Kathleen Peterson with some sort of blunt object.
Dr. Henry Lee disagreed with all of Duane Deaver’s opinions. Looking at an enhanced photo of the crime scene, Lee recognized a “swipe mark” in the stairwell, but claimed the swipe mark didn’t indicate any cleanup of the area. If there had been an attempt to clean up, Lee testified, the person had done “a lousy job.”
Regarding the blood droplets found inside Peterson’s shorts, again, Dr. Lee had a different view. Henry Lee stood up in front of the jury to illustrate the possible ways blood spatter had gotten in the inside leg of Peterson’s shorts, pointing out that Michael Peterson was “a skinny guy, with not too much meat.”
Dr. Lee testified that because Mr. Peterson was wearing “baggy shorts,” because there was a lot of space between the flesh and the fabric, “any configuration” could have caused the drops of blood. Mr. Peterson’s walking on a step, his sitting down—Lee said there were a lot of possibilities.
“Based on your education, and your training, and your experience, and your own observations and findings in this case,” Rudolf asked, “do you have an opinion to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty as to whether the totality of the evidence in this case from the scene is more consistent with an accident?”
“It’s more consistent with an accident,” Lee testified.
Later that afternoon, under cross-examination, Jim Hardin was able to get Henry Lee to admit that the “points of origin” that Agent Deaver located were each origins for blood that were created “out in space.” Nevertheless, Dr. Lee would contend that locating a point of origin did not necessarily equate a beating.
Prior to Lee’s testimony, a neuropathologist, Dr. Jan Leestma, had testified on behalf of the defense. Dr. Leestma told jurors that he believed Kathleen Peterson’s death had been the result of an accidental fall. Like Dr. Henry Lee, Dr. Jan Leestma was being paid $500 an hour to testify about his opinion. In essence, Dr. Leestma told jurors that Kathleen Peterson had suffered two falls, causing four impacts. However, when Jim Hardin asked the hired expert to explain exactly how that might have occurred, Leestma told Jim Hardin to ask a blood spatter expert, or a biomechanical engineer, for that answer.
“So I’m asking you, since it was Dr. Leestma’s opinion that she had two falls and four impacts,” Hardin said to Dr. Lee, “as the blood spatter expert, can you please explain to this jury the sequence of events about how that happened?”
“With all due respect,” Dr. Lee answered, “I can’t really give you the sequence of events. I cannot. I don’t know exactly which one fall is first or second.”
“Well, in fact, Dr. Lee, you can’t even say that all those lacerations were caused by falls, can you?”
“I did not say that.”
“Well, that’s what I want to understand,” Hardin pressed, “you can’t say?”
“I cannot say that,” Lee responded.
“You can’t say that all of those lacerations were caused by falls?”
“I don’t know,” Lee testified. “That’s outside the area of my expertise.”
By the time Jim Hardin finished with his cross-examination, Dr. Henry Lee’s testimony wasn’t seeming quite as worthy as his reputation. A recently retired commissioner of public safety in Connecticut, a coauthor of definitive books on forensics, Dr. Henry Lee had spent hours on the witness stand, had been a showman, had flung ketchup and red ink, but he hadn’t convinced the courtroom observers. He was smooth. He was fun to watch. People gawked at Dr. Henry Lee. But not everyone was sure he had the right opinion.
Regardless, the forensic man was still treated like a star. The folks in Durham read articles about him with fascination. The local papers drew cartoon caricatures of him. Dr. Henry Lee had been so comfortable on the stand, so confident in front of the TV cameras, he had even brought some levity to the situation. Throughout his testimony, he had managed to crack a few jokes.
Caitlin Atwater, however, would later confide that Dr. Lee’s attitude bothered her. She couldn’t understand Lee’s theory that there was “too much blood” for the death to have been a beating, yet not too much blood for a fall. She realized that the man was highly respected, but Caitlin felt his opinion didn’t make sense. Caitlin was upset and offended by Dr. Lee’s courtroom performance.
“I understand he was trying to be personable,” she later confided. “But the people in the courtroom were laughing about my mother’s blood.”