Zeigler, Part I

Zeigler, Part I: there is a man on death row in the United States of America, in Florida to be precise. On July 24th, he will be celebrating his 65th birthday. It will be a sober one. Death row does not throw great parties. He knows. He has been there since 1976.

His full name is William Thomas Zeigler, Jr., but people call him Tommy. The guards call him Ziggy. Tommy is still waiting. Waiting for a fair trial where this time all the evidence is brought before the court and the jury, and where forensic science can support what he has said from the start: he did not kill four people. He shot one of them, yes. He fought one of them, yes. But he did not beat that man to death. He was the intended victim.

His story has been told many times and you only need to Google his name and a slate of websites pop up with all the details and the entire story. The best story however, is in a book called “Fatal Flaw” written by author Phillip Finch. He generously made the book available to the public through a link on his website that used to take you to a free PDF version of the book. Alas, Finch passed away in 2012 and his site is no longer active.

When he gave me permission to use his work his only conditions were that:

1) The file must not be altered in any way; and
2) Its use must be strictly non-commercial; it must not be sold or bartered, and it cannot be included in any collection for sale or barter.

The book is not an easy read. You get tested from chapter one to keep up with Finch as he crawls into the mess that is Tommy’s case. Throughout the book, you ask yourself how this is possible and secretly suspect the author was writing fiction. But it isn’t.

Zeigler has his own category on my blog. In that category I will file all the posts explaining the crimes. I will try to show you why his is a wrongful conviction.

To be continued.