Judge sets bond for Michael Peterson

Michael Peterson, the Durham novelist and columnist convicted of murder in 2003, will get a new trial, a judge ruled today.

Judge Orlando Hudson set Peterson's bond at $300,000 and ordered him to be under electronic house arrest. Peterson probably will be released by the weekend.

Hudson found that former State Bureau of Investigation agent Duane Deaver misled the judge and jury in 2003, when his testimony helped convict Peterson in the death of his wife, Kathleen Peterson.

Deaver misled the jury about the validity of his experiments on the evidence at the crime scene, Hudson said.

Hudson also found that Deaver gave perjured testimony.

"Is a new trial required?" Hudson asked. "The answer is yes."

Peterson put his hand to his forehead and closed his eye as Hudson ruled. His family and friends crowding the court bench behind Peterson hugged one another, with several of his children quietly sobbing.

Peterson is the second convicted murderer in Durham to have his case altered by the problems with the SBI's work with evidence. Earlier this year, Hudson ordered charges against Derrick Allen dismissed because, he said, the SBI and Durham District Attorney's office withheld critical evidence from Allen as he was considering a plea deal in the 1998 death of a 2-year-old girl. That case is on appeal.

The SBI has been under scrutiny for nearly two years. Greg Taylor, a Wake County man, spent 17 years in prison before being exonerated early in 2010, primarily because Deaver did not disclose the negative results of blood tests.

A News & Observer series in August 2010 reported that agents, including Deaver, had cut corners and twisted reports and court testimony when the truth threatened to undermine prosecutions.

And an audit in August 2010 ordered by Attorney General Roy Cooper found more than 200 cases where official SBI lab reports did not reflect the results obtained in the lab. The most serious mistakes were contained in reports written by Deaver. Deaver was later fired.

Early this afternoon, Hudson added to the list of affected cases.

Clayton Peterson said he has always believed in his father's innocence and was shocked as evidence of Deaver's misconduct accumulated over the six days of the hearing. David Rudolf, Peterson's attorney, presented video clips of Deaver's testimony at trial and then contradicted them with SBI records and expert testimony.

"I became increasingly angry and disgusted," Clayton Peterson said. "Seeing the evidence presented, I am just disgusted."

Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline argued that Peterson should be denied a new trial because Rudolf could have discovered all the evidence about Deaver before the 2003 trial.

"The same information was available back in 2001," Cline said. "There is no new evidence that would make the jury reach a different verdict."

Cline declined to discuss whether she would pursue a perjury investigation against Deaver, given Hudson's ruling that Deaver presented "perjured testimony."

In general, perjury investigations are difficult, Cline said.

A prosecutor must first establish the truth, Cline said.

"And we have to show that he knew the truth and testified otherwise, and that is difficult," Cline said.

SBI assistant director Erik Hooks said in an interview last year that he could find no instance of an SBI agent being charged with perjury.

In 2003, Deaver testified as the state's foremost expert on the interpretation of bloodstain evidence, and his opinions were crucial to the jury's deliberation and verdict. He testified at trial tht the had worked 500 cases involving bloodstain pattern analysis, had written 200 reports and testified in 60 cases.

But an SBI search of its case files located 54 cases in which Deaver observed bloodstains and 36 cases where he provided an opinion on bloodstain pattern analysis, according to records turned over to Rudolf.

Two of Deaver's former colleagues testified last week that Deaver's pro-prosecution bias was so strong that it angered them and made them uncomfortable.