"Defense attorneys on Monday said that Zeigler did not have any of his family’s blood or DNA on his clothes, which would have splattered on him if he had shot and beat them to death. Two forensic scientists hired by Zeigler’s defense team testified as to how they tested samples of blood from each of the victims’ clothing. Prosecutors did not address those findings on Monday. On Tuesday, Marques, after about a 20-minute discussion with attorneys, agreed to adjourn and then resume the hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, giving state attorneys more time to review evidence. Zeigler was in the courtroom for a second day."
Prosecutors said Zeigler shot his wife, then his mother-in-law and then his father-in-law before beating the older man over the head with a metal pipe. The family had gathered at the store that night so Zeigler could gift his wife’s parents with a new recliner to take back to Georgia. Zeigler later shot and beat his customer Mays to death after luring him to the store on the promise of selling him a new TV set that night, according to detectives. Detectives said Zeigler then shot himself in the stomach to make it seem he was assaulted. Zeigler maintained that Mays was in the middle of a robbery with other men when the Zeiglers walked in."
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TEXT: Convicted murderer Tommy Zeigler — who has been on Florida’s Death Row nearly 50 years, longer than any other inmate — listened intently on Monday as his attorneys laid out the case that recent DNA tests of blood samples taken at a gruesome crime scene prove the furniture store owner could not have killed four people on Christmas Eve 1975.
“They got the wrong person,” attorney Dennis Tracey said in the Orange County courtroom. “Tommy Zeigler was not the perpetrator, but the victim. … We believe that these DNA tests will show that Mr. Zeigler could not have committed these crimes.”
Tracey called Zeigler’s 1976 trial “a travesty of justice” in which he was found guilty in the shooting deaths of his wife, Eunice, and mother-in-law, Virginia Edwards, and in the shooting and beating deaths of his father-in-law, Perry Edwards, and customer Charlie Mays in the Winter Garden store.
Circuit Court Judge Leticia Marques agreed in August to hold the evidentiary hearing this week to consider 232 tests conducted over the past two years from 43 items of clothing and samples of blood smears taken at the crime scene decades ago. She will decide whether the new evidence warrants overturning Zeigler’s convictions, ordering a new trial and setting him free, as his attorneys want, or if his convictions should stand, as prosecutors contend.
Zeigler, who turned 80 this year, was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, although he did stand briefly during the hearing. He wore a dark blue prison jumpsuit and thick black-framed glasses. He breathed through a hose connected to an oxygen tank behind him. He smiled and shook hands with his team of attorneys and occasionally looked around the crowded courtroom. Zeigler later was brought a black blazer, which sheriff’s deputies in the courtroom helped him put on.
Zeigler — convicted and sentenced to death in July 1976 — has long argued that he’s a victim of a botched robbery attempt coordinated by Mays, who owed the store money.
But state prosecutors, led by state Assistant Attorney General Joshua Schow, said Monday that Zeigler is guilty and that his motive was money: He took out two life insurance policies worth a total of $500,000 on his wife nearly two months before the murders.
Schow also argued that Zeigler’s defense carefully selected which items to test for DNA “to fit their theory” that Zeigler is innocent.
“The reason he’s on death row is because the evidence presented at trial clearly showed he was the murderer,” Schow said.
In a court filing last summer, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell’s office made the same point, saying the latest DNA tests are not enough to rescind Zeigler’s convictions and release him from state prison in Raiford.
“Nothing from this new round of testing changes the fact the jury got it right the first time around: Zeigler is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” the filing said.
Defense attorneys on Monday said that Zeigler did not have any of his family’s blood or DNA on his clothes, which would have splattered on him if he had shot and beat them to death.
Two forensic scientists hired by Zeigler’s defense team testified as to how they tested samples of blood from each of the victims’ clothing.
Prosecutors did not address those findings on Monday.
On Tuesday, Marques, after about a 20-minute discussion with attorneys, agreed to adjourn and then resume the hearing at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, giving state attorneys more time to review evidence. Zeigler was in the courtroom for a second day.
Attorneys said the entire hearing could end as soon as Thursday. Marques will then have 30 days to issue a decision.
Zeigler’s execution has been delayed several times over the decades because of appeals and evidentiary hearings. But this time, his attorneys say, is Zeigler’s last and best chance to walk out of state prison as a free man.
The winding case has drawn interest and scrutiny from around the world for decades, including civil rights advocates who have questioned the 1976 court proceedings.
On that Christmas Eve nearly 50 years ago, Zeigler was at his furniture store on Dillard Street when he called a friend, who was the Winter Garden police chief, to tell him that he had been shot. At the hospital, Zeigler claimed that he was attacked while entering the back of the dark store with an employee.
Police found the bodies of his wife, in-laws and Mays, along with several guns and pools of blood throughout the furniture showroom.
Prosecutors said Zeigler shot his wife, then his mother-in-law and then his father-in-law before beating the older man over the head with a metal pipe. The family had gathered at the store that night so Zeigler could gift his wife’s parents with a new recliner to take back to Georgia.
Zeigler later shot and beat his customer Mays to death after luring him to the store on the promise of selling him a new TV set that night, according to detectives.
Detectives said Zeigler then shot himself in the stomach to make it seem he was assaulted.
Zeigler maintained that Mays was in the middle of a robbery with other men when the Zeiglers walked in."
The entire story can be read at:
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
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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;
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