"It is important to understand that this hearing weighed the question of whether today's science could make a difference in one small aspect of a very large and very old case," said Abe Bonowitz, Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and an advocate for Zeigler. "There is a mountain of evidence that was never examined during the original trial. We had hoped that the new technology would be the key to a new trial and, for the first time, a full and fair examination of all of the evidence now available in this case, much of which was discovered only after the original trial was over."

In fact, Judge Whitehead himself acknowledged in his order that "the trial court is required to 'consider all newly discovered evidence which would be admissible' at trial and then evaluate the 'weight of both the newly discovered evidence and the evidence which was introduced at the trial.' " However, Whitehead denied a pretrial motion in which Zeigler tried to introduce other evidence discovered since the original trial but never considered by a court, including:

• a buried police report that contradicts a later report by the same officer;
• an affidavit by witnesses who heard gunshots at a time inconsistent with the State's hypothesis;
• an affidavit by witnesses who saw a police officer with his gun drawn outside the crime scene well before the police were called;
• evidence that no gun residue was found on the pants of Mr. Williams, a witness in the case. And more....

The State was successful in its motion to prevent the hearing from addressing the mountain of other post-trial evidence of innocence by claiming that the evidence is procedurally barred because it was introduced too late. As a result, only the DNA test results were evaluated in the hearing before Judge Whitehead.

"Once again, the legal doctrines of 'Procedural Bar' and 'Harmless Error' stand in the way of justice," said Bonowitz. "All Tommy Zeigler wants is for a jury to hear all the evidence that is available in this case. Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it is constitutional to execute a person who may be innocent. That may be happening here in Florida in the Zeigler case."

CASE DETAILS

Much more information on this case is available at
http://www.fadp.org/Zeigler/zeiglerisinnocent.html

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SENT BY:

Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP)
800-973-6548 www.fadp.org
PMB 335, 2603 NW 13th St (AKA Dr. MLK Jr. Hwy), Gainesville, FL 32609

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty works for restorative justice in the form of effective alternatives to the death penalty. It does so by

# supporting and coordinating the work of organizations and individuals
# educating and energizing the general public and state legislators
# supporting the many persons affected by capital crime and punishment
# advocating specific legislative improvements