The Staircase

I just finshed watching an 8 part series from the Sundance Documentary Collection, The Staircase. It involved the trial of a man accused of killing his wife, who I believe, fell down the stairs while drunk. I remember how bruised up my sister would get after a drunken night. She was always falling and covered with bruises the next day. I've seen people get horribly wounded while drunk, so it's not a stretch for me to think that someone could fall down the stairs and die from loss of blood after sustaining such wounds.

The trial was in Durham North Carolina and the DA that is trying the Duke lacrosse, rape case was involved slightly in this trial. He came across as a major slime ball. He seemed inordinately happy that the DA decided to file charges against the man, grinning his fool ass off at the thought of it. He is a bad, bad man. During the trial it came out that the accused was bi-sexual, truly bisexual. Throughout the suspect's 2 marriages, he would meet men and have sex with them. He claimed that this was with his wife's knowledge and approval. Probably one of the most charming witnesses I have ever seen in a televised trial, was a young ex-soldier, now escort, that the suspect had contacted on the internet while looking for a sexual encounter. He was very smart and very funny.

Just to show you that Miss C can learn somethng new, Miss C will say, that as she watched this documentary, she saw much predjudice and hatred and juvenile behavior from the citizenry and authorities of Durham, North Carolina regarding homosexuality. Miss C forgets that she lives in the big city and that not all places are like Miss C's big city. She needs to be reminded of that from time to time. Miss C is sort of an enlightened conservative and perhaps gives too much credit to others. I don't feel that the suspect got a fair trial. I feel he was found guilty by reason of homosexuality.

It was hard watching the defense attorney, Jewish and from NY and knowing that he felt, wrongly, like most liberals, that the jury was on his wave length. He was brilliant and his defense was masterful The problem was, once the gay aspect had been revealed, the jury had made up its mind to convict an innocent man. He really had no reason to kill his wife as he had been having sexual encounters all along. The Durham police were unsophisticated in their forensic analysis. The whole trial was very frustrating for me to watch. There were a lot of twists and turns and strange coincidences, and it was fascinating. The Jewish attorney even had to go to Germany to interview the suspect's ex wife. Poor guy had to watch a German parade. If any one has the time to watch this documantary, I highly recommend it.