In a 5 – 2 deci­sion, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned the mur­der and sex­u­al bat­tery con­vic­tions and death sen­tence of Roy Swafford (pic­tured), who has been on death row since 1988. The court said in its deci­sion that ​“No wit­ness, DNA, or fin­ger­prints link Swafford to the vic­tim or the mur­der weapon. The new­ly dis­cov­ered foren­sic evi­dence regard­ing the alleged sex­u­al bat­tery changes the very char­ac­ter of the case and affects the admis­si­bil­i­ty of evi­dence that was heard by the jury.” Retesting of evi­dence from the case indi­cat­ed that, con­trary to ear­li­er tests, a chem­i­cal found in semen was not present on the vic­tim, sug­gest­ing that she was not sex­u­al­ly assault­ed before the mur­der. The pros­e­cu­tion had said the assault moti­vat­ed the mur­der, so the new evi­dence removes the like­ly motive. The Supreme Court also said that jurors did not hear evi­dence about anoth­er sus­pect who matched descrip­tions of the mur­der­er, owned a car that matched the one used in abduct­ing the vic­tim, and owned the same type of gun used in the mur­der. Swafford’s attor­ney, Terri Backhus, summed up the deci­sion, say­ing, ​“Not only did the court say he gets a new tri­al on the sex­u­al bat­tery and the mur­der, but the Supreme Court said the tri­al court should grant a motion for judg­ment of acquit­tal on the sexual battery.”

(F. Fernandez, ​“Supreme Court over­turns death sen­tence in 1982 Ormond Beach mur­der,” Daytona Beach News-Journal, November 7, 2013) Read the Florida Supreme Court opin­ion. See Innocence.

Citation Guide