Paul Hildwin Released from Florida Prison 34 Years After Being Sentenced to Death

Paul Hildwin, whose death sen­tence was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 in a deci­sion it over­ruled 26 years lat­er, has been released from prison in Florida after spend­ing near­ly 34 years incar­cer­at­ed for a mur­der DNA evi­dence now shows he did not commit.

Hildwin (pic­tured, cen­ter, with inves­ti­ga­tor Kate O’Shea, left, and attor­ney Lyann Goudie, right) agreed to a no-con­test plea deal to secure his imme­di­ate release on March 9, 2020, rather than risk­ing a third attempt by Florida pros­e­cu­tors to sen­tence him to death. ​“Paul Hildwin’s unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion to one day walk free enabled him to sur­vive three and a half decades behind bars, dur­ing which he bat­tled four bouts of can­cer,” said Nina Morrison, Innocence Project Senior Litigation Counsel, who helped rep­re­sent Hildwin on his appeals from 2004 to 2014. ​“It is out­ra­geous that Paul was held in jail for five more years after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the new DNA would like­ly lead to his acquit­tal. And while we hoped that he would be ful­ly exon­er­at­ed, we are thrilled that Paul will not spend anoth­er day behind bars or face anoth­er death penalty trial.” 

Hildwin was con­vict­ed in 1986 of the mur­der of Vronzettie Cox. He said Cox had giv­en him a ride when he ran out of gas on the high­way. Hildwin said she and her boyfriend, William Haverty, began fight­ing, and he stole a ring and a radio from the car while they weren’t look­ing. When the argu­ment became heat­ed, Cox and Haverty pulled the car over, and Hildwin left. Four days lat­er, Cox’s body was found inside the trunk of her car in the woods. When Hildwin was found in pos­ses­sion of Cox’s prop­er­ty, he came under sus­pi­cion for her murder. 

At tri­al, Hildwin was rep­re­sent­ed by an inex­pe­ri­enced lawyer who had nev­er tried a mur­der case before. He failed to call two wit­ness­es who said they had seen Cox alive 12 hours after pros­e­cu­tors claimed Hildwin had killed her. Hildwin was con­vict­ed on tes­ti­mo­ny from an FBI foren­sics expert who claimed that semen and sali­va from the crime scene had come from Hildwin and could not have come from Haverty. During Hildwin’s appeals, the Innocence Project took on his case and sought mod­ern DNA test­ing. In 2003, tests exclud­ed Hildwin as the source of the bod­i­ly flu­ids. The Innocence Project worked for sev­en years to con­vince pros­e­cu­tors to run the DNA results through a nation­al DNA data­base, and in 2010, the Florida Supreme Court ordered the DNA data­base search. The DNA from the crime scene matched Haverty, who was includ­ed in the data­base because of an unre­lat­ed con­vic­tion of 16 counts of sex­u­al bat­tery of a minor. 

Hildwin chal­lenged his orig­i­nal death sen­tence claim­ing that Florida had vio­lat­ed his right to a jury tri­al by lim­it­ing his sen­tenc­ing jury to an advi­so­ry role and allow­ing the judge to make the fac­tu­al find­ings that would deter­mine whether a death sen­tence would be imposed. In an unsigned 7 – 2 opin­ion, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his appeal. More than a quar­ter-cen­tu­ry lat­er, in Hurst v. Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court over­ruled its deci­sion in Hildwin’s case and struck down Florida’s death-penalty statute. 

The Florida Supreme Court reversed Hildwin’s death sen­tence in 1995 on the grounds that his defense coun­sel had pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion dur­ing the penal­ty phase of tri­al. In 1996, his jury rec­om­mend­ed 8 – 4 that he be resen­tenced to death, and the tri­al court again imposed the death penal­ty. Eighteen years lat­er, based on the evi­dence impli­cat­ing Haverty in the mur­der, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned his con­vic­tion and death sen­tence and grant­ed him a new tri­al. He and his attor­neys have fought for his release for six years, but pros­e­cu­tors were deter­mined to retry him, despite the DNA evi­dence and the fact that at least twelve wit­ness­es have died. Tampa crim­i­nal defense attor­ney Lyann Goudie nego­ti­at­ed the plea deal that secured Hildwin’s release. He pled no con­test to sec­ond degree mur­der in exchange for a sus­pend­ed life sen­tence and probation.