The Florida Supreme Court has thrown out both the conviction and death sentence of Paul Hildwin due to DNA evidence. Paul has been on Florida’s Death Row for almost 30 years. For many years the state refused to permit DNA testing comparisons. The case could still be re-tried in Hernando County. From the Supreme Court’s ruling –
In other words, this new scientific evidence completely discredits the scientific evidence that the State relied upon at trial when the state argued that Hildwin’s defense was not supported by the evidence. In fact, exactly the opposite has now been shown to be true-the biological material matches the very person that Hildwin argued at trial was responsible for the murder.”
Florida has had at least 24 exonerations (thus far) of people on Death Row since 1973 – far more than any other state. Geoff Fox wrote a report for the Tampa Tribune, “DNA prompts court to overturn conviction in Hernando death.”