Another Innocent Inmate to be Freed From Death Row

The Florida Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly over­turned the con­vic­tion of death row inmate John Robert Ballard (pic­tured) and ordered his acquit­tal in the 1999 mur­ders of two of his acquain­tances. The Court con­clud­ed that the evi­dence against Ballard was so weak that the tri­al judge should have dis­missed the case imme­di­ate­ly. The pri­ma­ry evi­dence pre­sent­ed against Ballard was a hair and a fin­ger­print, both of which he could have left dur­ing his many vis­its to the vic­tims’ apart­ment. Bloody fin­ger­prints and a 100 oth­er hair sam­ples were found asso­ci­at­ed with the crime scene, none of them belong­ing to Ballard, who has always main­tained his inno­cence. One of the vic­tims was a known drug deal­er.

The state Attorney General’s office said that it would not seek a rehear­ing in the case. At Ballard’s tri­al, only 9 of the 12 jurors rec­om­mend­ed a death sen­tence. The judge decid­ed to sen­tence Ballard to death, com­ment­ing: ​“You have not only for­feit­ed your right to live among us, but under the laws of the state of Florida, you have for­feit­ed your right to live at all.” It is expect­ed that Ballard will be released soon, after serv­ing 3 years on death row.

(Associated Press, Feb. 23, 2006; Miami Herald, Feb. 24, 2006; Ballard v. Florida, No. SC03-1012, Feb. 23, 2006).

Once his acquit­tal is con­firmed, Ballard will be the 123^rd per­son exon­er­at­ed and freed from death row in the coun­try since 1973 and the 22^nd such per­son in Florida. Florida leads the coun­try in death row exon­er­a­tions. See Innocence.