Lawyers may address bond in Mike Peterson court hearing

Six months after the North Carolina Supreme Court declined to review a ruling that novelist and one-time Durham mayoral candidate Mike Peterson should get a new trial in his wife's 2001 death, Peterson is expected back in court Tuesday.

After almost a decade in prison, Peterson was granted a new trial in December 2011 when Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson ruled that a key prosecution witness gave false and misleading testimony during Peterson's 2003 murder trial, depriving him of his right to a fair trial.

The state Court of Appeals unanimously upheld Hudson's ruling a year ago, and the Supreme Court declined to intervene last December.

Peterson's status hearing is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. His attorneys might bring up the conditions of his bond. He has remained under house arrest and electronic monitoring since December 2011 while awaiting a new trial.

Kathleen Peterson was found dead in a pool of blood at the bottom of a staircase in the Petersons' upscale Durham home on Dec. 9, 2001. Prosecutors were never able to establish a clear motive and didn't find a murder weapon, and Mike Peterson has long denied any involvement in her death.

Hudson ruled that former State Bureau of Investigation blood analyst Duane Deaver misled jurors about his expertise and used questionable tests on evidence found in the Peterson home.

Deaver was fired by the SBI in 2011 amid an independent review of suspect practices at the state crime lab.