Forensic scientist Henry Lee, renowned for decades as one of the nation’s top criminologists, angrily denied Monday that he did anything wrong in the case of two men whose 1989 murder convictions have been thrown out by the state Supreme Court.

“In my 57-year career I have investigated over 8,000 cases and never ever was accused of any wrongdoing or for testifying intentionally wrong,” said Lee, who appeared at a press conference at the University of New Haven Monday morning to defend his record. “This is the first case that I have to defend myself.”

In a unanimous decision released last Friday afternoon, the court ordered new trials for Sean Henning and Ralph Birch, who were convicted in separate trials in 1989 for the bloody murder of 65-year-old Everett Carr in New Milford. They were convicted partially based on the testimony of Lee, who told jurors that a towel in the bathroom of Carr’s home had a spot on it that he had tested and found was “consistent with blood.” DNA testings decades later determined that there was no blood on the towel and that it had never been tested for blood.

Lee said he didn’t testify inaccurately and that in a field test at the time, the results showed that it was likely blood. Lee is the director of the Forensic Research and Training Center at the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science and Distinguished Chair Professor in Forensic Science at the University of New Haven.

“To say that I didn’t do any test is totally wrong. I didn’t say it was definitely blood,” Lee said. He said he did a field test on the towel found in the second floor bathroom and said that came back bright blue indicating it was blood. He said two other tests should have been done at the laboratory, but he didn’t explain why they weren’t done in the Carr double murder.

Henning and Birch spent decades in jail. Henning has been released on probation. Birch is incarcerated at the Osborn Correctional Institution in Somers.