Former SBI agent Duane Deaver has appealed his firing. The story is here.

His appeal will take place in the Office of Administrative Hearings. The case may give the public a look into a workplace generally closed off by personnel laws. Deaver's lawyers, Philip Isley and Philip Miller of Raleigh, will be able to gather SBI records and interview Deaver's bosses and colleagues under oath, such as current SBI director Greg McLeod,  former director Robin Pendergraft and perhaps Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Former SBI agent Duane Deaver has been at the heart of the many of the problems at the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation: the exoneration of Greg Taylor, an innocent man who spent 17 years behind bars; an independent audit that found 229 cases where blood test results were withheld or misstated; the bloodstain pattern analysis group that was shut down by Attorney General Roy Cooper for unscientific work.

Deaver, who was fired and faces contempt of court charges for his conduct in the Taylor case,  has not spoken with reporters over the past year, until recently. Deaver spoke with WRAL's Cullen Browder in a segment broadcast Monday evening. 

Deaver said he's a scientist who's done nothing wrong, but has become a scapegoat for problems at the SBI that he did not create. Deaver said the SBI has treated him unfairly and he vowed to get his job back. He said the whole experience has been very hurtful.

"I'm telling you I didn't do anything wrong, and yet, my career is over."

Does he think Greg Taylor is innocent?
"That's not my job. I'd hate to think that anyone would be put in prison who is innocent and that I would be part of that."

His report in the case said there were chemical indications of blood on Taylor's car. The report did not mention that subsequent, confirmatory tests for blood were negative. Deaver defended that report as scientifically accurate.

"Never would was it considered on my part that we were withholding anything.
That's not the way we did business or wanted to do business."

And he said he didn't think his work led to Taylor's conviction.

"I think it's mistaken. I think it's mistaken to think that my report was the reason he was convicted."

That's not the opinion of Taylor, who blames Deaver's report for his conviction.
WRAL said it would publish the entire interview later this week. We're curious to see if Deaver was asked about his bloodstain pattern analysis work, particularly in the Kirk Turner case. Or the George Goode case, where a federal judge scolded him for  giving false and misleading testimony.

Deaver's lawyer, Phillip Isley, said Deaver would not be giving any more interviews.

Duane Deaver, the poster boy for problems at the State Bureau of Investigation, was fired Friday. One reason cited for his firing were four words uttered in the Kirk Turner case, which you can find here. While the SBI didn't approve of Deaver exclaiming "That's a wrap baby!" on video, the termination letter contained  no criticism of the underlying work in the case.  Here's a video dissecting the work of Deaver and agent Gerald Thomas in the Turner case.

According to Deaver's lawyers, the SBI did not cite the substance of Deaver's work as grounds for termination.

The termination letter pointed to Deaver's testimony in the Greg Taylor case: he faces contempt of court charges for his conflicting statements to the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission. The letter does not cite Deaver's report in the Taylor case, which failed to mention confirmatory tests for blood whose results were favorable to Taylor. You can find video on this case here, and stories on the contempt of court charges here and here.

The third ground for termination: Deaver apparently reviewed a case file for a colleague while on investigative leave, when he was prohibited from working. According to Deaver's lawyers, "There is an arguable violation of an obscure SBI policy."

Here is a batch of letters about The N&O's SBI series "Agents' Secrets." Some of these letters will be on tomorrow's Editorial page, some will be in Sunday Forum this Sunday and others are online-only.

In  response to The N&O's series on the SBI, the children of Michael Peterson have written a letter imploring the state to give Peterson, who was convicted in 2003 of killing his wife, Kathleen, a new trial.

We, Michael Peterson’s children, would like to thank The N&O for its series on agent Duane Deaver and the N.C. SBI.

At our father’s trial, there were no eyewitnesses, no murder weapon and no credible motive. He was convicted solely on forensic evidence presented by Deaver and his colleagues at the SBI – evidence that was based on junk science and that included experiments designed to support the state’s case, not to determine the truth.

The videos of the unscientific “experiments” Deaver and his colleagues performed clearly show an attempt to re-create a desired outcome rather than to examine all possibilities. His experiments made a mockery of good science and objective testing protocols.

It is impossible to overestimate how crucial Deaver’s testimony was at the trial. Despite the objections of the defense, which vigorously questioned his qualifications, knowledge and expertise, he testified over eight days.

In her closing argument to the jury, assistant district attorney Freda Black reinforced Deaver’s importance in the state’s case by saying: “Now let’s look at Agent Deaver. Agent Deaver, Dr. Radisch, Dr. Butts, they’re state employees. And they work for your state. They work for your state, North Carolina. They work for us. They gave you truthful and accurate information. … They are tried and true. Tried and true. Because they work for us.

“Deaver will be back again. There will be other cases, other murder cases. They’ll be in the witness stand again. They wouldn’t come in and give inaccurate information. They’re not going to do that.”

Deaver did testify in other murder trials, and your series has exposed his testimony for what it is: worthless. The same can be said for his qualifications and his lack of scientific rigor.

Our father has been imprisoned for nearly seven years on the basis of testimony that not only lacked scientific validity, but also was given added import by Black’s endorsement of Deaver’s honesty and abilities.

We are heartened by Attorney General Roy Cooper’s commissioning of an independent investigation into the actions of the SBI, which will allow North Carolina to restore justice by undoing the damage perpetrated by its employees and agents at the SBI.

And in the interest of justice, we ask the state of North Carolina to overturn Peterson’s conviction and grant him a new trial, as it is clear his trial was irreparably damaged by Deaver’s involvement.

Clayton and Rebecca Peterson
Baltimore, Md.

This letter also was signed by Todd Peterson, Margaret Ratliff and Martha Ratliff.