When most of the nation thinks of the Peterson trial they think Scott Peterson and a messy murder in California. But North Carolinians know another. Michael Peterson, the author and Durham mayoral candidate, was accused of killing his wife in December 2001 by bludgeoning her with a fire poke and throwing her down a flight of stairs. Observers normally fascinated by courtroom drama were even more gripped by the provocative legal issues that surfaced during the ensuing trial that ultimately found Peterson guilty. The fact that he was a close friend of a woman who died in the same manner years earlier—and whose exhumation was allowed into testimony—was no small matter. Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (Murder on a Sunday Morning) has turned over 650 hours of footage into eight 45-minute segments to be aired on The Sundance Channel. The first two segments are presented here, on the trial of Michael Peterson. This extraordinary film allows unparalleled access to the defense and the prosecution team, as well as to the Peterson family.  NB