Entries tagged with “Tommy Zeigler”

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Oct 31, 2022

Florida Trial Court Conditionally Approves DNA Testing for Tommy Ziegler in 46-Year-Old Death Penalty Case

In what the Tampa Bay Times described as ​“an epic turn­around” in a 46-year-old cap­i­tal case, a Florida tri­al judge is poised to order DNA test­ing of evi­dence death-row pris­on­er Tommy Zeigler has long assert­ed will prove him inno­cent of the quadru­ple mur­der for which he was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Mar 30, 2020

After Unanimous House Passage, Florida Senate Fails to Enact DNA Reforms

After receiv­ing unan­i­mous sup­port in the Florida House of Representatives, a bill that would have expand­ed access to post­con­vic­tion DNA test­ing failed in the Florida Senate when the leg­isla­tive body adjourned its 2020 leg­isla­tive ses­sion with­out tak­ing up the…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Feb 07, 2020

States Continue to Oppose DNA Testing in Death Penalty Appeals, Attorneys Ask Why Don’t They Want to Learn the Truth?

The last three men sched­uled for exe­cu­tion in Georgia said they did not com­mit the killing and that DNA test­ing that was not avail­able at the time of tri­al could prove it. In two of the cas­es, vic­tim fam­i­ly mem­bers sup­port­ed the request for test­ing. Prosecutors opposed the requests, and the courts refused to allow the test­ing. Two of the three men were exe­cut­ed, with doubts still swirling as to their…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Dec 21, 2018

18 Years After Enacting DNA Law, Florida Death-Row Prisoners Are Still Being Denied Testing

Florida courts have refused death-row pris­on­ers access to DNA test­ing sev­en­ty times, deny­ing 19 men – eight of whom have been exe­cut­ed – any test­ing at all and pre­vent­ing nine oth­ers from obtain­ing test­ing of addi­tion­al evi­dence or more advanced DNA test­ing after ini­tial tests were incon­clu­sive. For a six-part inves­tiga­tive series, Blood and truth: The lin­ger­ing case of Tommy Zeigler and how Florida fights DNA test­ing, Tampa Bay Times Pulitzer-prize winning…