Lawyers for Clemente Javier Aguirre recent­ly pre­sent­ed the results of DNA test­ing to a Florida court, cast­ing seri­ous doubt on his guilt. Aguirre was sen­tenced to death for the mur­der of two women in 2006. Although the DNA evi­dence was avail­able at the time of his tri­al, Aguirre’s tri­al lawyer nev­er request­ed test­ing of the crime-scene evi­dence. Aguirre’s cur­rent lawyers said that DNA results from dozens of items did not reveal Aguirre’s blood at the crime scene. Instead, the tests found blood belong­ing to the daugh­ter of one of the vic­tims, a woman with a his­to­ry of men­tal ill­ness who may be respon­si­ble for the killings. Nina Morrison, a lawyer at the Innocence Project who is assist­ing with Aguirre’s case said, ​“It’s the rare case in which you have DNA in mul­ti­ple places at the scene of a homi­cide show­ing the blood of some­one oth­er than a convicted person.”

Mr. Aguirre admit­ted to find­ing and touch­ing the bod­ies of the vic­tims, which could explain why their blood was found on his clothes. He told police a dif­fer­ent sto­ry at first, per­haps because he feared being deport­ed back to Honduras.

(L. Alvarez, ​“Lawyers Say DNA Clears Florida Inmate in Two Killings,” New York Times, May 13, 2013). See Innocence and Foreign Nationals.

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