"Former agent Duane Deaver was at the center of Peterson's 2003 trial. Deaver, a veteran bloodstain pattern analyst, linked Peterson to the murder of his wife, Kathleen, saying that bloodstains on the stairwell and Peterson's clothes helped prove that he assaulted her with a fireplace poker.
"But in the eight years since, Deaver has fallen from star witness to an agent accused of hiding or manipulating evidence to ensure a win for prosecutors. He has been blamed for withholding critical blood evidence in the case of Greg Taylor, a Wake County man exonerated last year. An audit of the SBI's serology unit found more than 30 cases by Deaver with similar patterns.
Peterson's lawyer, David Rudolf, is now asking for a do-over, saying jurors were led to believe Deaver was a stand-up agent with the truth as a priority.
"Deaver has had a long-standing pattern and practice of fabricating inculpatory evidence, concealing exculpatory evidence, tailoring his testimony to whatever the prosecutor wanted or needed him to say, and committing perjury in order to advance his primary goal: to secure the conviction of the person on trial," Rudolf, his trial attorney, said in the motion."
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BACKGROUND: (MICHAEL PETERSON); Michael Peterson was convicted in 2003 of killing his wife, Kathleen Peterson, after a four-month trial. Peterson has been denied relief from the courts at every appeal. "Most recently, in 2009, Durham County Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson declined to give Peterson a new trial after lawyers argued that Peterson had not been told that a tire iron was found in a neighbor's yard a few days after Kathleen Peterson's death.
"Durham novelist Michael Peterson is making a new plea for freedom, saying the State Bureau of Investigation agent who helped convince jurors he killed his wife cannot be trusted," the Charlotte Observer story by reporter Mandy Locke published earlier today begins, under the heading, "Appeal of conviction hinges on SBI agent: Investigator Duane Deaver's testimony helped convict Michael Peterson of killing Peterson's wife. Deaver's trustworthiness is in doubt."
"Former agent Duane Deaver was at the center of Peterson's 2003 trial. Deaver, a veteran bloodstain pattern analyst, linked Peterson to the murder of his wife, Kathleen, saying that bloodstains on the stairwell and Peterson's clothes helped prove that he assaulted her with a fireplace poker," the story continues.
"But in the eight years since, Deaver has fallen from star witness to an agent accused of hiding or manipulating evidence to ensure a win for prosecutors. He has been blamed for withholding critical blood evidence in the case of Greg Taylor, a Wake County man exonerated last year. An audit of the SBI's serology unit found more than 30 cases by Deaver with similar patterns.
Peterson's lawyer, David Rudolf, is now asking for a do-over, saying jurors were led to believe Deaver was a stand-up agent with the truth as a priority.
"Deaver has had a long-standing pattern and practice of fabricating inculpatory evidence, concealing exculpatory evidence, tailoring his testimony to whatever the prosecutor wanted or needed him to say, and committing perjury in order to advance his primary goal: to secure the conviction of the person on trial," Rudolf, his trial attorney, said in the motion.
Peterson, a one-time candidate for mayor of Durham, is in prison for life, having lost every appeal. Peterson's case has drawn international attention for nearly a decade, with supporters latching on to an array of theories, including the possibility that an owl attacked Kathleen Peterson and caused her to fall down the stairs.
Fired from SBI
This appeal could bring different results.
Deaver has been at the center of a scandal rocking the SBI. In courtrooms across the state, prosecutors are having to defend the reputations of SBI agents and analysts in the wake of News & Observer reports and a scathing audit of Deaver's serology unit commissioned by Attorney General Roy Cooper.
This motion goes to Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, who was the judge in Peterson's trial. Late last year, Hudson dismissed a murder charge against Derek Allen, whose case was highlighted in the audit. In 2007, Hudson also released Floyd Brown, who was held for 14 years in a state mental institution based on an alleged confession taken by SBI agent Mark Isley.
Hudson could grant Peterson a second trial if he believes there's new evidence that would have changed the jury's decision.
Even SBI leaders have turned against Deaver, firing him in January. He also faces criminal contempt charges for statements made to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission in 2009 involving his work in the Taylor case.
Deaver's attorney, Philip Isley, has not yet seen the motion but said he hopes the SBI defends the allegations against Deaver. He said that Deaver would help if asked.
Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline declined to comment on the motion. A spokeswoman for Cooper said district attorneys typically handle such motions but that the attorney general's office would consider helping Cline if asked.
Proving a theory?
The scene at the Petersons' home in 2001 presented a mystery to investigators.
The scene was very bloody, so Durham police turned to Deaver, the SBI's foremost bloodstain pattern expert, to study the bloodstains in the stairwell to figure out how she died.
Rudolf said in the motion filed Tuesday that Deaver came to the Petersons' house and, before entering the home, was told by detectives that they thought Kathleen Peterson had been slain.
Within 90 minutes, before Deaver performed any experiments or calculations of the blood spatter, Deaver agreed it was a homicide, according to the motion.
Back at the lab, Deaver performed experiments involving a Styrofoam head and a blood-soaked sponge. He and a fellow analyst appeared to have cheered when they performed an experiment that yielded blood patterns they found similar to that at Peterson's house, according to a muted video of the experiment.
At trial in 2003, Rudolf fought Deaver hard.
For nearly eight days, Deaver testified before jurors. Once, during the trial, Rudolf discovered Deaver had performed a test on Peterson's shirt and failed to report this testing and results to prosecutors. That test offered evidence favorable to Peterson; no spatter had been found on Peterson's shirt.
Rudolf pressed the judge during the trial to block Deaver's testimony, objecting to the foundation of his experiments. Deaver was allowed to testify; prosecutors heralded his expertise to jurors and urged them to listen to what the bloody walls and stairs told Deaver.
Prosecutors urged jurors to believe Deaver, vouching for his honesty.
Former assistant district attorney Freda Black argued to jurors that to believe the defense experts who countered Deaver's testimony that jurors were "just going to have to believe that Duane Deaver is just a liar. And he had no reason in the world to come up here and lie to you."
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The story can be found at:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/02/16/2066393/appeal-of-conviction-hinges-on.html
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be accessed at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
For a breakdown of some of the cases, issues and controversies this Blog is currently following, please turn to:
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=120008354894645705&postID=8369513443994476774
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
