Lawyers argue over bloodstains

Focus is on clothing in Tommy Zeigler's retrail hearing.

Gruesome crime-scene photos and bloodstained clothing were center stage in Orange County court Monday as lawyers for William Thomas Zeigler fought for what might be his last chance to escape the death penalty for a Christmas Eve 1975 massacre that left four dead.

Zeigler, 59, one of the longest-serving inmates on death row, was condemned for the murders of his wife, her parents and a customer at his family's Winter Garden furniture store 29 years ago this Friday.

Defense attorneys hope to overturn Zeigler's conviction and win him a new trial based on evidence not available when he was convicted: DNA analysis of 29-year-old bloodstains.

In the first day of a hearing set to conclude today, both prosecutors and defense attorneys Monday argued that the new evidence bolstered their side.

What Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead must decide is whether the new evidence, had it been available to the jury that convicted Zeigler in 1976, would have changed their verdict.

The hearing is scheduled to end this morning after closing arguments by the attorneys. Whitehead did not indicate when he will rule.

The new evidence consists of DNA tests that were court-ordered last year after a request by Zeigler's lawyers. Such tests, which can positively identify or eliminate a suspect as a source of blood, were not developed until years after Zeigler's conviction, when forensic experts could do little more than identify the blood type of a victim or suspect.

In recent years, DNA tests around the country have provided clear-cut evidence in many criminal cases, either proving people were wrongly convicted or proving they must be guilty. In Zeigler's case, defense lawyers and prosecutors argued bitterly Monday over exactly what, if anything, the new DNA tests prove.

John Houston Pope, a New York attorney representing Zeigler, said that if the new evidence had been presented to Zeigler's jury, it "would probably result in a different verdict."

Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton countered that "this evidence is going to show that Tommy Zeigler is a murderer and Tommy Zeigler is a liar, as a jury found so long ago."

Zeigler, pale and frail-looking, his handcuffs locked to a chain around his waist, was escorted into the courtroom on the 10th floor of the Orange County Courthouse by several officers. Wearing a blue jail jumpsuit, he sat quietly through the day's testimony, sometimes chatting with one of his lawyers or jotting down a note. He did not testify.

Zeigler's case has gained international attention among death-penalty opponents. A book arguing his innocence was published several years ago, and celebrities including Bianca Jagger have spoken out against his death sentence.

Before the hearing, a small group of death-penalty opponents held a brief news conference and protest on the steps of the courthouse. "We're here to call for a fair trial for Tommy Zeigler," said Abe Bonowitz of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, while two protesters, shivering in the cold wind, held up a banner.

Zeigler was convicted of killing his wife, Eunice; her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards; and Charlie Mays, a customer at his furniture store.

At Zeigler's trial, which was moved to Jacksonville because of pretrial publicity, then-State Attorney Robert Eagan argued that Zeigler killed his wife and in-laws, then tried to make it look as though they were victims of a gang of robbers. Eagan said Zeigler killed Mays, then shot himself in an attempt to make it look as though Mays was one of the robbers.

The plan fell apart, detectives and prosecutors said, because a store employee Zeigler tried to kill and frame that night escaped and told police.

While cross-examining Zeigler at trial, Eagan accused him of holding Perry Edwards in a headlock while bashing in his skull with a heavy metal crank handle, and suggested that explained the large bloodstain on the shirt Zeigler was wearing. Zeigler denied it.

On Monday, Shawn Weiss, a DNA expert who tested some of the bloodstains on Zeigler's shirt, said the stains came not from Edwards, but from Mays.

With Weiss and the lawyers wearing plastic gloves to avoid contaminating the stained, red-orange shirt Zeigler was wearing the night of the murders, Weiss pointed out where he had cut small patches from the shirt to conduct the tests.

Under cross-examination from Ashton, Weiss acknowledged that the tests covered only small areas of the bloodstained shirt, and that untested stains could be Edwards' blood.

"Any of the other blood on this shirt could be from Perry Edwards?" Ashton asked.

"It's possible," Weiss said.

Both Ashton and Dennis Tracey, an attorney for Zeigler, blamed each other for not testing more of the blood stains. Weiss said he simply tested whatever the two lawyers told him to test.

The lawyers are expected to conclude their arguments in less than an hour this morning.

Central to defense lawyers' claims is their theory that Mays wasn't an innocent victim, but instead a killer whom Zeigler killed in self-defense.

That claim angers Mays' widow, Mattie Mays, who said she and her six children still are haunted by the murders.

Mattie Mays said she doesn't want Zeigler to ever get out of prison. But still, she doesn't demand that Zeigler be put to death.

"If they kill him, it's not going to bring the people back," she said. "I just don't want him to walk this Earth no more."

Pope said he wasn't trying to hurt Mays' family.

"It's not personal," Pope said. "We're advocating what the evidence shows. If that's what it shows, that's what it shows."

Anthony Colarossi of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Roger Roy can be reached at 407-420-5436 or rroy@orlandosentinel.com.