Florida Plans to Execute Daniel Conahan Thursday Despite Innocence Claim and Lack of DNA Evidence

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

For Immediate Release

Florida Plans to Execute Daniel Conahan Thursday Despite Innocence Claim and Lack of DNA Evidence

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — At 6 p.m. on September 1, 2026, Florida plans to execute U.S. Navy veteran Daniel Owen Conahan Jr. for the 1996 murder of Richard Hamilton in Charlotte County. If completed, this will be Florida’s 15th execution of 2026. To date, only two other states (Texas (4) and Oklahoma (3)) have executed more than one person this year.

Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) is calling on Gov. DeSantis to stop the execution and allow Conahan’s claims of innocence and requests for additional DNA testing to receive full and meaningful consideration. Simultaneously, Conahan is petitioning the United States Supreme Court to allow for this DNA testing.

If the execution proceeds, FADP staff, members, and supporters will gather for a peaceful vigil beginning at 5 p.m. ET outside the execution chamber at Florida State Prison, 23916 NW 83rd Ave. in Raiford. Additional vigils will take place across the state, including in Pinellas County, the Jacksonville metropolitan area, North Port, Pensacola, and Tallahassee.

A Longstanding Innocence Claim and Request for DNA Testing

The State’s case against Conahan was circumstantial. No DNA evidence places him with Richard Montgomery, at the location where Montgomery’s body was found, or in contact with Montgomery’s remains.

Investigators collected extensive physical evidence, including hairs, cigarette butts, fingernail clippings, fibers, and a paint chip from the crime scene. None of the DNA evidence identified Conahan. A hair associated with Montgomery contained DNA from an unidentified person, and Conahan was excluded as its source. DNA recovered from cigarette butts excluded both Conahan and Montgomery but was never fully investigated or compared against all potential suspects.

The fiber and paint evidence presented at trial also did not establish a definitive link to Conahan. In January 2025, Conahan filed a motion seeking DNA testing that could confirm his longstanding innocence claim. At the time Gov. DeSantis signed Conahan’s death warrant, that motion was still pending. Yet, within 24 hours of the warrant being signed, the motion was summarily denied without a hearing or oral argument. Rather than allow the very testing that could identify the unknown DNA contributors or clarify the physical evidence, the Governor arbitrarily set an execution date and forced the unresolved forensic testing request into a compressed death-warrant schedule.

Conahan’s death sentence also carries another marker of wrongful conviction cases – questionable testimony from a jailhouse informant who claimed Conahan made incriminating statements while they were incarcerated together. Six days after Gov. DeSantis signed Conahan’s death warrant, his attorneys learned of a new witness, Alfred Rhiner, who had shared a four-person jail cell with Conahan and the State’s informant. Rhiner said the informant was an experienced jailhouse snitch who later bragged about “setting up” Conahan. Despite this direct challenge to the informant’s credibility, courts refused to provide a full evidentiary hearing before allowing the execution to move forward.

“Florida is preparing to execute Daniel Conahan even though no DNA evidence connects him to Richard Montgomery’s murder, his request for additional testing was still pending when the governor signed his death warrant, and a new witness has undermined critical testimony used against him,” said Grace Hanna, Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

A Serial Killer Narrative Without Serial Murder Charges

Authorities and media outlets routinely refer to Conahan as the “Hog Trail Killer” or a “serial killer.” Yet Conahan has never been charged with or tried for, let alone convicted of, any of the other murders that could justifiably support that label. He was convicted of one murder: Richard Montgomery’s.

Investigators began focusing on Conahan after another man accused him of a similar assault. Prosecutors then used that allegation and a broader theory about a series of unsolved murders to shape the public case against him. The resulting narrative was highly sensational and relied heavily on assumptions about gay men and sexual behavior during a period of intense anti-gay stigma. The “serial killer” label has since been repeated so often that it is frequently treated as an established fact, even though the other deaths attributed to Conahan have never been tested in court.

“The State built a terrifying story around Daniel Conahan and then allowed that story to substitute for proof,” Hanna continued. “Calling someone a serial killer does not make it so. It does not turn unidentified DNA into Mr. Conahan’s DNA or transform these uncharged accusations into convictions. Florida chose a salacious narrative over forensic evidence or credible witness testimony, and now it is preparing to make that choice irreversible.”

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Legal Sources:

U.S. Supreme Court: 26-5476

Florida Supreme Court: SC2026-1234

Circuit Court (Charlotte County): 97000166F