Zeigler gets a new DNA hearing! The Orlando Sentinel reports that an Orange Circuit Judge has granted long-time death row inmate Tommy Zeigler an evidentiary hearing more than a year after the man convicted of killing his in-laws, his wife, and another man on Christmas Eve 1975 filed a Petition_and_Proposed_Order[1] in his case.
The order granting an evidentiary hearing appeared on the Orange County Clerk of Courts website late last Monday. The paperwork picked up this morning indicates the evidentiary hearing will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2011, according to the order signed by Orange Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead.
Zeigler filed his petition for new DNA testing in late August 2009. Zeigler advocates, who maintain that he was framed in the murders and not guilty of the massacre, have been writing letters and asking the court to rule on the petition.
The new round of DNA testing would be Zeigler’s latest attempt to prove what he has claimed all these years: that he is innocent of the murders. “If the test results confirm the State’s theory, it will allay doubts that a man has been wrongly imprisoned for so long,” 65-year-old Zeigler wrote in his petition last year and filed with Whitehead. “If the results confirm my innocence, as I contend they will, the evidence can be used to finally set me free.”
Several years ago, DNA testing, which was not available during the trial back in 1976, showed that blood evidence on Zeigler’s shirt was linked to the wrong victim. The prosecution intimated at trial that Zeigler held his father-in-law, Perry Edwards, in a headlock while striking him with a metal crank. This explained the bloodstain found on the underarm of Zeigler’s shirt. But the DNA testing showed that the blood belonged to Charlie Mays, another man killed in the furniture store. Testing further found that blood on Mays’ shoes and pants was consistent with Edwards’ blood.
Judge Whitehead decided this discovery would not have changed jurors’ minds and he denied Zeigler a new trial. But in last year’s DNA petition, Zeigler asked for new DNA testing on his outer shirt and T-shirt; Mays’ shirts and shoes; Edwards’ shirt, jacket, pants, tie, tie clip and fingernails; and his wife Eunice Zeigler’s clothing.
Zeigler also asked for the release of blood samples from all the victims, including his mother-in-law, Virginia Edwards, and another man associated with the case, Felton Thomas, who was an important witness for the prosecution. Testing Edwards’ clothing and fingernails and Mays’ clothing will “also demonstrate that I was not Perry’s assailant,” Zeigler wrote.
Questioned last year about Zeigler’s latest filing, Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton called the petition ridiculous. “This is just an attempt by him to delay the inevitable,” Ashton said.
Clearly, State Attorney Jeff Ashton does not grasp the importance of the DNA testing that was done in 2002: it proved the state’s theory wrong!
Look at the t-shirt. This was the t-shirt Tommy wore underneath a red dress shirt, the night he was shot and, was supposed to die. On the front of the t-shirt you see a big blood stain underneath the left armpit, right? And on the back of the t-shirt, you see the blood underneath the left arm pit again and on the bottom right, the blood coming from the exit wound where he was shot in the abdomen.
Let’s talk about the left arm pit stain. The State’s case against Zeigler was based on the contention that Zeigler killed his father-in-law, Perry Edwards and, therefore, the blood under Zeigler’s left arm (and on the front of Zeigler’s t-shirt) is from the bleeding head of Perry Edwards as Zeigler administered the fatal beating. One of the key pieces of evidence against Tommy was, that the blood stain revealed blood type A. Both his wife Eunice and her father, Perry Edwards had blood type A…as well as Charlie Mays!
During the original investigation, decisions were made that nowadays would make any cop scream. With multiple victims of whom some were blood related, it would only make sense to not just blood type the evidence but also, to test for DNA. Really, how many people on earth have blood type O positive? One in 3 people! Check the blood book, if you want to know more about that.
Let’s go back to the stains.
The chief contention on which the jury convicted Zeigler was that since Zeigler had his father-in-law’s blood type on his t-shirt underneath the left armpit, it followed that Zeigler had held Perry Edwards in a headlock, beat and later also shot him! And, if he did that to his father-in-law, he certainly was responsible for the shooting deaths of the others. The problem here is of course, that with blood typing, only a part of the story was told. Yes, Tommy had been fighting with someone. Only, that person was Charlie Mays and not his very own father-in-law. But alas, as stated above, both men had blood type A.
Decades later, Laboratory Corporation of America (LabCorp) in North Carolina performed DNA testing on the t-shirt and other items. Blood Samples of six persons were forwarded to LabCorp: Perry Edwards, Virginia Edwards, Eunice Zeigler, Charlie Mays, Felton Thomas, and Tommy Zeigler.
The key DNA test results were that the tested blood on Zeigler’s t-shirt (under the left arm), on the front pocket of his outer shirt, and on his pants (back, left pocket and left knee)is not the blood of Perry Edwards. It is the blood of Charlie Mays. Zeigler did not have any of Perry Edwards’ blood on him! The other blood on the t-shirt was Zeigler’s own.
Zeigler never denied that he fought with Mays and now we have proof of the battle between these two men. We now have one key piece of evidence that actually exonerates Zeigler. But, this constant connection of the Type A blood of Perry Edwards with the heavy bloodstain under Zeigler’s left arm laid the foundation for Eagan’s closing argument on this point: “You will have the opportunity to examine Mr. Zeigler’s clothing…You will see a soaked area of blood under the left armpit of those shirts. That could have gotten there only by his having someone in his arm who was Type A blood. He didn’t get that crawling around on the floor. Who was bleeding Type A blood!” It set the stage for Zeigler’s conviction. It took the jury exactly 25 minutes…
Just like in the cases of Willingham and Skinner,we should think one more time before we pull the switch. We did not in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham and are about to repeat that mistake with Henry Skinner. How many more deaths does it take before US states accept that executing without having tested all materials for DNA is wrong? And how much longer will it take before those states acknowledge that we have more wrongful convictions in the USA than you think is possible?
William Thomas Zeigler is one of those wrongfully convicted for the murders of three people he loved. And Mays? Mays was a killer who got killed himself when he lost his cool. Zeigler, the only intended victim of the butchery, became the accused merely because he survived.
Check out the crime scene: there is blood everywhere around every victim. They were all lying in puddles of their own blood except Mays. There is blood everywhere around his head and upper torso but nothing around his legs and feet. Whoever beat Mays was sitting on him, and steadying himself while struggling with Mays and he placed his hand on the floor a few times. Those prints had to be wiped away. That is the only explanation that makes sense; Mays was murdered by people who knew what to do on a crime scene. Are we going to ignore this too?
For once, please let us do what is right instead of what is easy.