(CNN) -- Novelist Michael Peterson walked out of a North Carolina jail Thursday, eight years after he was convicted of murdering his wife. A jury convicted Peterson in October 2003 of murder, siding with prosecutors who argued he had bludgeoned Kathleen Peterson to death in the stairwell of their Durham home. But on Wednesday, Judge Orlando Hudson ruled that Peterson deserved a new trial and finding that North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation agent Duane Deaver had misled jurors about bloodstain evidence. Deaver was fired by the agency last January. Peterson addressed the press after being released Thursday on bond.
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NEW: Peterson's attorney says "Duane Deaver was all over that scene for days"
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NEW: Peterson's son lauds the judge's decision, yet his stepsister is more guarded
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In 2003, a grand jury convicted Michael Peterson of murdering his wife
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A judge has granted him a new trial, saying an agent had misled jurors in his testimony
"I have waited over eight years -- 2,988 days as a matter of fact ... for an opportunity to have a retrial," @placeholder said, while surrounded by family.