WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING; CALIFORNIA: (Applicable wherever a state resists DNA testing): "Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate."...Says Gamso: "So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?"
HAROLD LEVY: PUBLISHER: THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG.
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BACKGROUND: (From earlier story by Digital Reporter Emilee Speck published on May 21, 2021, on Orlando.com..."More than 45 years waiting for execution William “Tommy” Zeigler will be granted the DNA evidence his attorneys have sought for years that they say could clear his name. Zeigler, now 75, was convicted of killing his wife, in-laws and a fourth person at the W.T. Zeigler Furniture store in Winter Garden owned by his family on Christmas Eve 1975. Previous prosecutors have contended Zeigler staged the massacre as a robbery to collect his wife’s $50,000 life insurance policy. For the last two decades, the death row inmate has begged the courts for DNA testing on physical evidence that he says would prove his innocence. In particular, Zeigler’s attorney wants to test his clothing to see if it has the victims’ blood on it and the fingernail clippings of his father-in-law, who fought his killer before being shot. This week, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell agreed to release the evidence Zeigler seeks. His attorneys have agreed to pay for the testing that wasn’t available when he was convicted. The Tampa Bay Times was the first to report the state attorney’s agreement to grant the request. The news outlet has been reporting on Florida’s repeated refusals to grant modernized DNA testing for death row inmates, including Zeigler."
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: 'Hadley was beside himself over the state’s move in Zeigler’s case.'... “It absolutely nauseates me that anyone would go to these kinds of gross lengths,” he said, “to prevent this man from doing his DNA testing."
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "As of Tuesday afternoon, the attorney general had not filed a notice in the case of Henry Sireci, another man on death row who has sought DNA testing for two decades. Worrell agreed to his testing, too, and Circuit Judge Wayne C. Wooten signed off on it May 7.
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STORY: "Florida's Attorney General objects to death row inmate's DNA testing," by Enterprise Reporter Leonora Lapeter Anton, published by The Tampa Bay Times on June 1, 2021.
SUB-HEADING: "Tommy Zeigler's lawyer had received support from a local prosecutor. A judge must still decide."
GIST: Florida’s attorney general stepped into death row inmate Tommy Zeigler’s request for DNA testing Tuesday, arguing it should not be allowed.
Assistant Attorney General Patrick Bobek filed a notice in Zeigler’s case that the request does not comply with Florida law, which says the testing should only be approved when it would outright exonerate an inmate.
Zeigler’s lawyers argue that it would.
The court filing comes less than two weeks after Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell agreed to support Zeigler’s request for testing.
Zeigler, 75, has been on death row for 45 years for the Christmas Eve 1975 murders of his wife, in-laws and another man at his family’s Winter Garden furniture store. The DNA testing would be paid for by his attorneys.
“It’s clearly an attempt to derail this effort,” said Terry Hadley in an interview Tuesday afternoon. “It’s an attempt to interfere with what the parties have agreed to.”
Hadley was Zeigler’s trial attorney.
Bobek declined to comment when reached at his office in Daytona Beach.
Kylie Mason, a spokesperson for the Office of Attorney General Ashley Moody in Tallahassee, wrote in an email that the attorney general serves as co-counsel in the case and should have been notified.
She said the agreement between Zeigler’s lawyers and Worrell’s office fails to comply with Florida’s Rules of Criminal Procedure. She also said the evidence should only be handled by a state lab.
“It is imperative that any DNA testing of the evidence preserves its integrity,” she wrote.
RELATED: Read the Tampa Bay Times series about Zeigler's case
A judge must approve the agreement before the evidence in Zeigler’s case is released for testing. That is typically routine when the parties agree, but it’s unclear what effect the attorney general’s stance will have.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the attorney general had not filed a notice in the case of Henry Sireci, another man on death row who has sought DNA testing for two decades. Worrell agreed to his testing, too, and Circuit Judge Wayne C. Wooten signed off on it May 7.
Hadley was beside himself over the state’s move in Zeigler’s case.
“It absolutely nauseates me that anyone would go to these kinds of gross lengths,” he said, “to prevent this man from doing his DNA testing.""
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2021/06/01/floridas-attorney-general-objects-to-death-row-inmates-dna-testing/
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. 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; -----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
