Original subtitles

He made the map, written by him.

[director] Here is a map. Can I show you this map?

The maps that I was provided are dead balls accurate.

I mean, he told me where the fucking dynamite was.

[director] Is this your handwriting?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[director] What does that say?

- This here? "RCMP." - [director] Mm-hmm.

Where to go. Who to kill.

[director] Why did you draw this map?

[Peter] I can't remember.

The whole meaning of this is to fucking murder and blow this shit up,

and burn it up.

These three dots here are the explosives.

Three containers full.

It started off with the parents of his wife.

He mentions blowing up Sergeant Terry Jacklin.

[director] Is it coming back to you? Do you remember now?

Um...

No.

[dramatic music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[keys rattling]

In the first trial, they deliberated, I think, through nine days

before the judge was forced to declare hung jury.

[indistinct chatter]

It's a brutal existence.

It's, uh, it's like being neck-deep

in an alligator swamp.

You have to be on guard.

There's a saying that's very true in jail.

You are only ever 30 seconds away from severe bodily injury

or a manslaughter charge.

[dramatic music playing]

[Peter] It wasn't until I was put into the hole,

the most horrible part of a jail.

And the only book I had in there was the Bible.

Then I started reading it and it was like,

"Wow, this is Laura's life."

[woman] Them that are without God judgeth.

Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

It all fell into an understanding

of what I believe was the reality of the situation.

It was not homicide or murder.

I knew that.

But was it accident or was it suicide?

She was always judged and under the torment

and fear of her appearance in the theological extremism.

From when we reconciled to the date of her death,

she was torn apart by her parents.

They said, "You have to choose between your family or your husband."

Laura kept a diary.

The most recent reference to suicide was in 2007, when the parents

forced her to go down to sign the divorce papers in Edmonton.

[dramatic music playing]

[Laura] Left for Edmonton at 1:24 p.m. Went down #44.

Had bad thoughts.

I wanted to cross the line with two trucks nearby.

[Terry] We spoke with her doctor, and her doctor had no concerns

about her well-being or being depressed, and was not--and I don't believe

she was on any medication for depression either.

I have a hard time believing she would take her own life.

She was very spiritual.

[Karen] There's no way she would've committed suicide.

No way. Hundred percent.

It doesn't even make sense.

[low-key music playing]

[reporter] A former Napier City councilor Peter Beckett

is on trial again in Canada, charged with murdering his wife.

A first trial lasting three months ended last year

when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

[Donna] It's a hard case, and two heads are better than one.

And I asked Marilyn Sandford to take the case.

His counsel, Miss Turko, was looking for a new counsel for a retrial,

which is something I would do, too.

It's often good to have fresh eyes look at a case.

I was astounded that this man was facing this charge

and had been in custody for years at that point

based upon no evidence at all.

Now we can do it right the second time around.

How could they come up with the conviction

that they couldn't come up with the first time around?

What more can they present that would change people's minds?

[judge] I will now call upon Crown to give Crown's opening statement.

The statements that Mr. Beckett made, his story doesn't make sense.

His wife fell in the water, he knew she couldn't swim.

He purposefully didn't save her.

Can you imagine a circumstance?

Can you imagine a circumstance where you would not reach out to her?

The only explanation for him not helping her out of the water

is that he wanted her to die.

[Marilyn] Human beings are complex

and situations of crisis, um, we all act differently.

[Iain] It's what Peter Beckett said and did

in the aftermath of his wife's death,

which is primarily what we put in front of the jury and said,

"Here's the body of evidence upon which you can find

that he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

[reporter] A friend of the Becketts, Ron Hawkins, has taken the stand today,

where he has reported some unusual behavior from the former councilor.

[Tim] Immediately after Laura drowned,

Peter met with a couple in Revelstoke.

[Ron] When we got back to my house, um, he did ask me what you can see

on Google Earth, uh, what you can see at, uh, Shelter Bay.

I wanted to work out where along the coast Laura drowned.

Ron Hawkins turned that in with, no doubt, a lot of persuasion from the police

that I was afraid that there may have been cameras on me.

[laughs]

Stupid, bizarre stuff.

[Ron] He said, "Well, is it being recorded all the time or is it a single shot?"

[Iain] And how did--uh, and how did he seem when you told him

that, uh, it was only a photo every few years?

[Ron] Uh, I think he felt comfortable about that.

The way that it played out in court,

it appeared to be devastating for Peter's credibility.

Something that a guilty person would do for sure.

[water burbling]

[reporter] There's also a jailhouse snitch.

[Tim] Yeah, the jailhouse snitch.

Beckett talked to his cellmate and he was like,

"You know, I've got this case against me."

"This is what the Crown alleges."

"It would be a lot easier for me if these people weren't around."

[Iain] Let's talk about when Mr. Beckett was your cellmate.

[informant] Yeah, Mr. Beckett moved into my cell.

And we'd done a lot of cell time.

About 20 hours a day.

[Marilyn] But the first trial, the jailhouse informant's entire testimony

was allowed in front of the jury.

We brought a motion seeking to exclude the evidence

of the jailhouse informant in whole or in part.

[ominous music playing]

[Iain] Which conversation was that, that took place on the Tuesday, the 17th?

[informant] He talks about a retainer.

The retainer was to take care of witnesses.

[Iain] Can you tell us, were there any conversations

that you haven't told us about that led you to that conclusion?

[informant] Virginia Friesen.

She was one of the most damning witnesses.

I was going to take her out in a motor vehicle accident.

- [tires screeching] - [cars crashing]

[steam hissing]

[informant] The Letts family.

Their houses were going to be torched with them in it.

[suspenseful music playing]

That's something that Mr. Beckett came up with. Yeah.

[Marilyn] May I interrupt at this stage and ask that the jury be excused?

There's a matter I need to address with you.

[judge] All right. Members of the jury, would you just stand down?

He spilled the beans on all sorts of things he was--

the jury was not supposed to hear.

The damage is done.

This very damaging evidence has been elicited.

It's, in my view, a very, very serious matter.

And we sought a mistrial at that point, and that application was denied.

[dramatic music playing]

I think it was five or six days of prosecution evidence.

The prosecution called as witnesses police investigators.

They called Mr. Titsworth, who was the campground manager,

who said that once Mr. Beckett gave him a dirty look.

This sort of very equivocal, vague, not very specific evidence,

it was all like that.

There was no smoking gun, there was no, "This is the weapon."

"This is--this is how it was done."

[water splashing]

The whole case was based on the fact that what I said in my statement

was so implausible that it had to be untrue.

They had no evidence of anything.

There's no evidence of an assault, there's no evidence that he intentionally

drove the boat in a way to make her fall off.

There's no evidence.

As far as meeting any theories of the Crown,

we called a forensic pathologist

to testify about cold-water drownings.

I was retained by Miss Sandford to provide an independent opinion

into how Miss Laura Letts-Beckett came to die.

[Iain] What Peter Beckett said is that she sunk like a stone.

It didn't make sense to me that, by the point that he got in the water,

she was too far down.

There is good evidence that bodies certainly can sink

quite rapidly during the drowning process and after the moment of death.

Contrary to their sort of myth, which is that they're on the surface

flailing, yelling, "Help me, help me," that's not what happens

when a non-swimmer hits water.

They sink quite quickly.

Another issue that arises is a thing called cold-water shock.

[Marilyn] Upper Arrow Lake, this is a very large glacial lake, cold lake.

The initial gasping reflex, [gasps]

like this, gasp in, take a deep breath of air.

And if the head is underwater that time, of course that can lead to drowning

or the commencement of the drowning process.

Cold-water shock can start to exert

a significant influence within a matter of seconds.

There was a lot of focus in the first trial on the rock,

and swimming to the shore, and getting the rock.

[Marilyn] In the first trial, the prosecution said,

"Mr. Beckett's account of what he did with the rock

was contrary to the laws of physics and science."

"It was impossible."

[Dr. Jeffrey] Apparently, this is called absurd to have to swim and get a rock.

What a crazy story.

And the point of my testimony was to say it's not crazy at all.

It's tough for some people to get below the surface.

This individual was described to me as being very large

with a fair amount of adipose tissue on his body.

And if people have a lot of body fat, well, that will help them float.

So it made perfect sense that he needed to get weight,

and going to the shore and getting a rock is really the only choice you have.

So, it made perfect sense to me.

[judge] This morning is closing submissions from counsel, Miss Sanford.

I think some of the toughest cases for a justice system

are cases where it's unclear whether there was a crime at all.

She fell off the boat very close to the shore.

That's why he was able to swim there.

If you're planning a murder, why would you do it close to the shore

where people might be?

Why not do it in the middle of this huge lake?

To say nothing of why would you bother to get the body,

which the prosecution agreed he did,

why would you do that if you've just killed your wife?

It took a year for the police to even bother

to go look at the bottom of the lake.

And sure enough, the rod is there.

The lines are extended as he described they would be, and the umbrella was there.

So all precisely as he described it.

Peter Beckett lost his wife, and it could happen to any one of us.

We ask that you find Peter Beckett not guilty.

This is just such a classic example

of an imaginary crime that didn't happen.

[judge] Thank you, Miss Sanford.

We'll start to hear Crown's closing submissions.

Mr. Currie?

[Iain] Accidents happen.

People stumble. People fall.

Accidents on the water happen.

I think I talked to the jury for four hours or something like that,

but that's just because I talk a lot.

Sometimes, accidents happen in tragically unfortunate circumstances.

The challenge of this case is it was circumstantial.

[Marilyn] The closing submission of the prosecution

was saying you can take this, the dirty look,

and then add it to the Google Earth, and then add it to the life insurance.

Somehow, this creates guilt out of all of these pieces of speculation.

[Iain] The most important piece of evidence in the case

is Mr. Beckett's statement.

He told a story, which I argued was clearly untrue.

You can find that this is concocted.

This is fabricated, to deceive the police.

You can even use that as important evidence against him,

as evidence supporting the Crown's theory that Mr. Beckett killed his wife.

Everything's interpreted through the lens of guilt,

and that is sort of the opposite of what a jury is supposed to do.

Closing arguments have wrapped up

in the first-degree murder trial of Peter Beckett.

The case is now in the hands of the jury.

Marilyn and I were totally convinced

that this is a complete acquittal.

[Iain] The jury took, I think it was four days.

Four days is a long time.

[water trickling]

[dramatic music playing]

[judge] Judging one's fellow man is a tremendous responsibility.

The foreperson stands up.

And the judge asked the foreman of the jury,

have they reached their decision?

[foreman] Yes, we have.

[man] Do you find the accused, Peter Ernest Edward Beckett,

guilty or not guilty of the offense of first-degree murder?

[foreman] Guilty.

[dramatic music playing]

I felt this rush of blood go down to my feet.

[judge] Mr. Beckett, I sentence you to life in jail

with no possibility of parole for a period of 25 years.

[Peter] I was so despondent, with very good reason.

The biggest miscarriage of justice, I think, in the world.

I did not kill Laura.

It does give us closure.

We have a faith, and that did certainly help.

We're going to meet our daughter again.

We do have to forgive.

If we can't forgive, we'll live in misery the rest of our life.

Uh, it's not easy, but we do have to do.

[reporter] Have you gotten to that point?

He's only convicted five minutes.

That's fairly fast for me.

[police siren wailing distantly]

When you go into an appeal believing

that somebody has been wrongfully convicted,

there's a lot of pressure to ensure

that he doesn't spend the rest of his life in jail.

But there's a timeline to this.

Nothing is gonna happen quickly.

He's gonna be in custody for probably at least another year,

maybe even longer than that.

What is allowed to go down in jail is absolutely disgusting.

It's subhuman.

There are things that I was exposed to that no person should have to see,

like a 55-year-old who I witnessed standing up on a chair

and diving onto cement,

and his head splitting open like a watermelon

because he couldn't cope.

Nobody comes out of jail a better person.

If they've been falsely accused, you're fighting for your own survival

and you're fighting to get out of jail because somebody

or some people, are trying to put you in jail for something you didn't do.

They wanted me dead.

And I'm not exaggerating or I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

They wanted me dead because I was going to reveal

so much of what had happened.

Like the time that they carted me around

in a 26-seater inmate bus by myself,

and moved me from Vancouver to Kamloops

without leg irons or handcuffs on,

and stopped at a service station complex

and left my door open.

They could legitimately shoot me if I had tried to run.

You wanna play those stupid games with me?

What do you think, I'm stupid?

Well, if Peter Beckett believes that the police had any plan, plot,

to cause him harm, he's completely--that's completely false.

For an officer to use deadly or lethal force,

there would have to be the perception that the subject

had the capability of either causing death

or grievous bodily harm either to themselves or to others of the public.

[Richard] There was significant problems with what took place at the trial.

[Peter] It is rare for an appeals lawyer

to find two or three grounds of appeal.

Richard Fowler narrowed it down to six

because he didn't want to dilute the miscarriage of justice.

We argued that the trial judge was wrong

to permit the prosecution to argue to the jury

that Mr. Beckett's statement was fabricated.

[Peter] I just went straight back to the boat, right?

- With the rock? - Yes.

The prosecution was permitted to say to the jury

that they could fill in any gaps in evidence,

if there's--if there's not enough here,

by going to the statement he gave,

finding it must be fabricated, and then using the fact

that he fabricated a statement to find him guilty.

[Iain] You can even use that as important evidence against him,

as evidence supporting the Crown's theory

that Mr. Beckett killed his wife.

It was all speculation.

We were successful in having Peter's conviction quashed.

He convinced a three-judge panel that...

the prosecutors basically crossed the line in their closing remarks.

And because of that, they overturned his conviction.

I was thankful for the fact that three learned judges

went through everything

and ruled legally

and overturned the bullshit that I had to endure for ten years.

I should never have had to go through what I went through,

and I never want anybody else

to have to go through what I went through in the first place.

The judge who wrote the decision

said very strongly to prosecutors,

"Think long and hard about not pursuing this for a third time."

The prosecutors just decided that they are gonna keep pursuing it.

The Crown files an appeal, applying to the Supreme Court of Canada

to reverse the British Columbia Court of Appeals' decision

and uphold Mr. Beckett's conviction.

[soft dramatic music playing]

- [man] Hi, Peter. - Hi. Good morning.

[Peter] So now I'm in a state of purgatory.

The conviction has been quashed

but I'm waiting to find out whether or not

I go back into custody for the rest of my life

or I'm free.

I'm just calling my daughter in Sydney.

[daughter] Hi, Dad.

How are you?

Yeah, good. How are you?

Good.

I've just heard from Richard Fowler.

Yeah.

Uh, the decision is coming down later this week.

From the Supreme Court?

Yeah.

When I moved to Canada,

I had to grieve my children, my children had to grieve me.

The gap in communication between me and my children now

is caused by how much hurt

my charges caused them.

Okay, I'll talk to you later. Love you.

Okay. Bye-bye. Love you too. Bye-bye.

[somber music playing]

Physical violence has to be defined.

A boot in the ass?

Is violence a, a slap on the shoulder?

Or is violence a punch, that causes trauma?

Because I have never inflicted...

trauma that's needed any medical attention on any woman in my life.

[Del] I'm not sure if Pete physically abused his wife and children.

His first wife would often have had an accident at home.

They must have had a revolving door

because she seemed to run into it quite often.

I think, yeah, something must've been going on.

And I think I should have said something more at that time.

I should have said something. I should have done something,

but I didn't and that's done.

[dramatic music playing]

Laura did have this domestic dispute

where he knocked her around and she did take action.

[Terry] In the fall of 2007,

Laura went to the Westlock RCMP Detachment

to make a complaint of domestic violence.

She provided her handwritten statement to the officer.

[Laura] The first instance happened late in the evening in our bedroom,

where he karate-chopped me near my ears.

As I recall, they rang for quite some time.

I ran to the kitchen, and he came out and karate-chopped me

on the bridge of my nose.

I was holding up a pillow to protect myself.

That investigation was concluded by the Westlock Detachment,

and no charges were made against Peter Beckett.

I don't know the rationale about why.

[sighs]

When I joined the RCMP, I joined because of this stupid,

romantic idea that we're there to help.

And if getting justice for somebody is helping, that's what I wanna do.

I wanna help.

And to get justice for Laura...

Ah, sorry.

The whole reason to be a police officer is to help.

Do we always meet that goal?

Probably not, but that is the goal that I tried to achieve.

[Iain] We didn't call any evidence about the relationship

between Laura Letts-Beckett and Peter Beckett.

And we did that on purpose because it seemed to me

that was a dangerous thing to put in front of a jury.

You can't reason that he's a bad guy who

had this abusive relationship with his wife,

therefore, he's more likely to have killed her.

A jury should look at the evidence and should judge the evidence

as opposed to judging Peter Beckett.

[somber music playing]

[Peter] The thought of going back to jail for the rest of my life is...

Well, I don't even like to think about it.

I can't predict what's gonna happen.

- [Richard] Morning, Peter. - [Peter] Morning, Richard. How are you?

- [Richard] Good. How are you doing? - [Peter] Oh, I'm hanging in there.

- [Richard] Bright and early, eh? - [Peter] Yeah.

[Richard] We're waiting for the decision in the next couple of minutes

from the Supreme Court of Canada.

Hopefully, they will dismiss the Crown's leave application,

but we'll find out momentarily.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

[Richard] Yeah, that's the nature of what we have to do, unfortunately.

You know, if they grant the Crown leave, then things will continue

for some more months

and, uh, we'll have to prepare arguments for the Supreme Court of Canada.

So, um...

all right, I'm looking at the decision, Peter.

It's good news.

- How can that be good news? - [Richard] How can it be good news?

The Crown's application for leave is dismissed.

- Wow. - [Peter] Wow?

- Yes. - [Peter] Wow.

[Richard] So that means the Court of Appeals' decision is the final decision.

- Yeah. Well... - So we're days,

maybe a couple of weeks away, from this all being over for you.

[exhales sharply]

Yeah, I don't think this will ever be over.

I know. And instead of being able to mourn the death...

- [Peter] Huh. - ...of your lovely wife...

- [Peter] Yeah. - ...you've had to...

Endure the whole thing. I didn't even know who--

where her ashes are, Richard.

They isolated me from everybody, including my four children.

Maybe if you move it over closer.

It's as close as it will go.

- [daughter] Hello? - It's Dad.

Oh, hi, Dad.

I'm sorry to wake you.

It's all--it's all over.

The application was dismissed.

Oh, my goodness. That's wonderful news.

Yeah. It's been a long haul for everybody, eh?

Oh, my goodness. It's great, Dad. That's amazing.

- Anyway, that's... - Oh, that's wonderful Dad.

- Yes. - I'm so relieved. I'm so relieved.

Yeah, um, yeah, it's kind of...

Get on with your life now, Dad.

That's exactly right. So that's what we're planning next.

- [Peter] Yeah. - Your dad can, uh,

maybe get in your sailboat.

- Yeah, go sailing. - [laughter]

Well, sorry for waking you up but, uh,

no better reason to wake you up, eh?

- [Peter] No. - [daughter] No.

[laughter]

That's amazing news.

Okay, love you lots.

Love you too. I'll talk to you later.

- Okay. Bye-bye. - [Richard] Bye.

Bye.

Well...

[suspenseful music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[seagull squawking]

- [children shouting] - Go, go, go, go, go!

[children laughing]

[Terry] The law allowed Mr. Beckett,

uh, to go free as a free man.

But they believe that Peter Beckett got away with murder.

There was a separate charge against Peter Beckett

related to the jailhouse informant,

that he wanted to do harm to witnesses.

[Terry] I believe that information we received about the fact

that Peter wanted to eliminate witnesses was the truth.

But during the course of the murder trial,

the Supreme Court put a time limit on how long Crown

would have to prosecute offenses.

How long is too long before an accused person

is tried in a court of law?

Last summer, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on that question,

and its decision has jolted the criminal justice system.

It's called the Jordan decision,

and it's led to people charged with crimes all the way up to murder walking away.

It cannot be longer than 30 months,

and I never got to trial for 73 months.

So my counsel made application

to have it dismissed under the Jordan ruling.

And, uh, ultimately they had to enter a judicial stay of proceedings.

And, uh, Peter Beckett never faced a trial for those charges.

We require, as a society, a very high standard of proof.

Uh, we require a degree of certainty,

um, in order to send someone to jail for a whole--

for a whole long time, and that's the way it should be.

If an innocent man was convicted, then the Crown loses, we all lose.

Uh, if a guilty man is acquitted, um, quite frequently, we all win.

Isn't it better to let a hundred guilty men out than put one innocent man in jail?

[dramatic music playing]

[Peter] I dreamed about sailing or living on a boat when I was in jail.

It was my form of escapism

to keep my mind kind of healthy.

You have to have a goal.

So I bought the catamaran in Honduras here, sight unseen.

I take out people on it.

Uh, I can charter it.

I can, um, fish from it.

I can sail around the world on it.

I always had great faith in the fact that one day, justice would prevail.

But I'm not a free man.

I'm still tarred with that brush.

It's--that is the cruelest part of the injustice I went through.

[speaking Spanish]

[chuckles]

Everywhere I go, invariably, with social media,

I get caught up in the history of the case.

And if anybody wants to research me online, what comes up?

Convicted murderer.

[suspenseful music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[dramatic music playing]

[water splashes]

[Peter] The captain is the captain.

And if somebody gets drunk and out of hand, just say,

"Hey, listen, come over here."

"It's a fuckin' long way for you to swim."

[dramatic music playing]