Thursday, February 21, 2013

Bulletin: Tommy Zeigler: State Supreme Court has turned down appeal of decision denying DNA testing of the clothing he wore on the night of the murders. Orlando Sentinel.


STORY:  "State Supreme Court rejects Tommy Zeigler DNA decision appeal, " by reporter Jeff Weiner, published in the Orlando Sentinel on February 21, 2013.

GIST:  "The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday denied an appellate motion by convicted killer Tommy Zeigler, the latest ruling in his three-plus-decade fight to get off death row. Zeigler, the Winter Garden furniture-store owner convicted in the bloody Christmas Eve 1975 slayings of four people, remains in the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford. Zeigler's wife, in-laws and a man named Charlie Mays were killed. Zeigler was also shot, but investigators said the wound was self-inflicted as part of an insurance scheme. Zeigler, now 67, claims he is innocent of the slayings, and was instead wounded fighting his family's attackers, including Mays. Zeigler appealed to the state Supreme Court after a circuit judge denied his request to have DNA tests performed on his clothing from the night of the murders. His defense argued a lack of blood from one of the victims, Zeigler's father-in-law, on those clothes would have shown Zeigler didn't commit the beating the victim suffered. But on Thursday, the higher court affirmed the circuit's ruling, concluding that the absence of blood on Zeigler's clothes would "not establish that he was not the perpetrator." The ruling is another defeat for Zeigler's defense, which was also recently denied a request, based on the discovery of a new witness, for a new trial in the case."

The entire story can be found at:

http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-74512612/

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

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 found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:

http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html

Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.


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