Based on new, dramatic DNA findings, attorneys for Tommy Zeigler, on Florida's Death Row for more than 26 years for a quadruple homicide, are asking Florida to vacate his conviction.

In a motion filed in Orlando, appellate lawyers claim DNA evidence shows Zeigler, 57, told the truth when he denied he murdered his wife, her parents and a customer at his Winter Garden furniture store Christmas Eve, 1975.

The discovery of the four bodies in the quiet farm town 27 years ago rocked the state and shattered the community. It never quite recovered, and the turn of events this week is certain to be disputed.

Now, Zeigler's attorneys, John Pope and Dennis Tracey, say two DNA blood tests support his account of what happened. But Jeff Ashton, Orange County assistant state attorney who has fought Zeigler's appeals for 14 years, disagrees: ``You can spin these DNA results any way you want to prove what you want.''

Initially, it was hard for anyone to believe that Tommy Zeigler, then 30, wealthy owner of Zeigler's Furniture Store, murdered his 29-year-old wife of eight years, Eunice, and her parents, Perry Edwards, 72, and Virginia, 54, and customer Charlie Mays, 35.

But the state said at the time that forensic evidence and a key witness proved he had. Early on Christmas morning, police found Perry Edwards, Zeigler's father-in-law, dead. He had fought and died in a struggle with the killer.

Zeigler's shirt was spotted with A-type blood under the arm, and Perry Edwards had A-type blood, leading police to conclude that Zeigler held his father-in-law in a head lock while beating him to death.

During his trial, prosecutor Bob Eagan asked Zeigler: ``I want you to tell me . . . how you got all the blood under the armpit of your clothing -- Type A blood . . . how you held Perry Edwards around the neck and clubbed him with your right hand as you held him with your left.''

Zeigler replied: ``I did not do it.''

But the jury believed he did.

SHOT IN ABDOMEN

Zeigler called police to the furniture store, and when they arrived, he staggered to the door, shot in the abdomen, and collapsed in the arms of an officer. Later, Zeigler said he had come to the furniture store with Edward Williams, a hired helper. Williams did not go in.

Zeigler said he entered the darkened store and someone hit him on the head. The two men fought, and Zeigler said he eventually was able to reach a gun and shot the man. The man, whom Zeigler could not see, fired back, hitting Zeigler in the abdomen. That man turned out to be Mays.

Zeigler passed out, unaware that the bloody bodies of his family were sprawled across the showroom floor. When he regained consciousness, he called police.

STATE'S VERSION

The state's theory was that Zeigler shot his wife to cash in on a $500,000 life insurance policy. Her parents walked in on him, and he had to kill them, too. Then he lured Charlie Mays to the store with the promise of a free television to pin the murders on him, then killed him, claiming self-defense.

Zeigler tried to frame helper Edward Williams by returning to the store with him, prosecutors believed.

Williams told police that Zeigler pulled a gun on him to force him into the store after the shooting. When he refused to enter, Zeigler tried to fire three times. The gun only clicked, Williams said, and he talked Zeigler into handing him the gun and took it to Orlando police.

Zeigler told police that Williams was lying and that he had to be involved in the plot with Mays. Williams, however, ended up being a key prosecution witness.

Police said Zeigler shot himself after finishing his call to them to make himself appear a victim of his own crime.

But DNA results tell a different story, Zeigler's attorneys say.

The blood on Tommy Zeigler's shirt under the arm is not the A-type blood of father-in-law Perry Edwards, as the prosecutor claimed at trial. Instead, it's the blood of Charlie Mays.

More important, they say, results show that Mays' clothing has Perry Edwards' blood.

This DNA result corroborates Zeigler's claim that Mays, not he, beat his father-in-law to death, defense attorneys say.

But Ashton disputes the importance of this finding.

''It was a very bloody crime scene, and anyone's blood could have been anywhere,'' he said.

Perry Edwards' blood could have been on Tommy Zeigler's shirt, but the DNA lab did not test that part of the shirt, Ashton added.

''Ashton had the opportunity to have more of the shirt tested when the results came back and didn't do it. Why not?'' asked Vernon Davids, an attorney who was a member of Zeigler's original defense team and has worked on the case for 27 years.

''Because the case is based on a lot more than blood and DNA,'' Ashton said.

Vernon Davids: ``The DNA results didn't come back the way the state hoped. So they are going to deny their importance. Tommy Zeigler should be exonerated.''