Michael Iver Peterson — “Mike” to his friends — is a 78-year-old novelist and decorated military veteran who once ran for mayor of Durham, North Carolina. But in 2003, he went to jail for life without the possibility of parole, a result of being convicted of the 2001 murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson.

After a retrial, the judge vacated the jury's verdict in 2011. In 2017, Michael submitted an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter. He was resentenced to 86 weeks in prison but was officially freed in 2017 since he had already served more than that time.

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