STORY: "Tommy Zeigler awaits judge's decision after Orange County hearing," by Investigative Reporter Greg Fox, published by WESH 2. on December 5, 2025. (Greg Fox has been a member of the WESH 2 News team since May 1987 as an anchor and reporter. He is currently the Investigative and Political reporter.)
GIST: "As courtroom 13E in the Orange County courthouse cleared out Friday afternoon, Tommy Zeigler was wheeled to a temporary holding cell, possibly for the last time, before being transported back to Florida State Prison and death row.
Assistant Attorney General Joshua Schow said, "The State got it right in 1976, and Mr. Zeigler's motion to vacate his convictions should be denied."
Attorney David Michaeli summed up the defense team’s position, saying, "We have to raise questions that give rise to reasonable doubt about his (Zeigler’s) guilt. And I think that we have done that, in spades."
The five-day hearing featured contradicting testimony from defense and State forensic experts as they examined clothing, guns, and other evidence, some of which was tested with new DNA technology to ensure blood stains were correctly identified in the grisly crime scene.
Murdered on Christmas Eve 1975 were Zeigler's wife Eunice, her parents Perry and Virginia Edwards, and a customer of Tommy Zeigler's Winter Garden furniture store, Charlie Mays. Zeigler himself was found shot but survived, and the defense has suggested Mays may have been the killer. The State argued that Zeigler must have shot himself to try and divert suspicion. At the time of the murders, Zeigler had life insurance policies on his wife worth $500,000, obtained just weeks earlier.
After the hearing adjourned, the defense team expressed confidence in their case to vacate the convictions and earn a new trial. Attorney Dennis Tracey added, "He's also very grateful for the time and the effort that the court has put into this, and is hopeful that justice will be served."
Neither the prosecutors nor the Edwards' daughter-in-law and others who knew the victims would speak with WESH 2 News as they hurried from the courthouse Friday afternoon.
However, Connie Crawford, a member of the courtroom audience who has regularly visited Zeigler in prison for five decades, shared her thoughts. She commended Circuit Judge Leticia Marques on her handling of the case, saying, "I don't think there has ever been a Judge before that listened the way she did and participated. So there is hope that she will come to the right decision."
For now, Zeigler, who has served on Florida's death row longer than anyone in history, heads back to prison to await the decision in his half-century-long legal battle.
Judge Marques updated the timetable on this case. She expects to receive the full transcript of the week’s hearing by mid-January. The attorneys will then have 30 days to provide their recommended rulings, and the judge will then have until roughly mid-March to hand down her order."
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.wesh.com/article/tommy-zeigler-awaits-judges-decision-orange-county-hearing/69648106
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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.
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
———————————————————————————————
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;
—————————————————————————————————
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;
—————————————————————————————————
