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Thread: William Thomas Zeigler, Jr. - Florida Death Row

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    William Thomas Zeigler, Jr. - Florida Death Row


    Eunice Zeigler


    Perry and Virginia Edwards




    Summary of Offense:

    On July 2, 1976, William Thomas Zeigler, Jr. was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. The following account of the circumstances of the offense is that which is found in the Florida Supreme Court opinion published on June 11, 1981: On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1975, Eunice Zeigler, wife of the defendant, and Perry and Virginia Edwards, parents-in-law of the defendant, were shot to death in the W.T. Zeigler Furniture Store in Winter Garden, Florida. In addition, Charles Mays, Jr. was shot and subsequently beaten to death at the same location. The medical examiner estimated times of death as within one hour of 8:00 p.m. that evening. The defendant was also found shot through the abdomen. The state theorized that Zeigler murdered the four people in an apparent insurance fraud scheme.

    Just months before the murders, Zeigler had purchased a large amount of life insurance on his wife and had purchased two RG revolvers indirectly through Edward Williams, a long time family acquaintance. Williams testified that Zeigler had inquired of him about obtaining a “hot gun.” Williams then arranged for another man, Frank Smith, to purchase the guns and deliver them to Zeigler. On the day of the murders, Zeigler had made arrangements to meet Mays and Williams, at separate times, at the furniture store. Mays left his home around 6:30 p.m. and went to an Oakland beer joint where he encountered his friend, Felton Thomas. Thomas then accompanied Mays to meet Zeigler at the furniture store. Upon meeting, Zeigler took the two men to an orange grove to shoot a set of guns he had with him in his vehicle. The state theorized that the purpose of this trip was to get the two men to handle and fire the weapons Zeigler had procured.

    When they returned to the store, Zeigler could not persuade Thomas to enter the store. Thomas became uncomfortable and left the premises. This was the last time Mays was seen alive by Thomas. Around 8:00 p.m., Zeigler returned to his home to keep an earlier appointment he had made with Edward Williams. Williams was to meet him at Zeigler’s home in order to help Zeigler move Christmas presents from the furniture store. The two men used Williams’ truck to return to the store. When they arrived, Zeigler entered through the front door and instructed Williams to pull his truck around to the back and then enter from the rear entrance. When Williams entered the back hallway, Zeigler put a gun to Williams’ chest and pulled the trigger three times. However, the gun did not fire and Williams fled the store. At some point after this, Zeigler himself was shot in the stomach. The state theorized that Zeigler became desperate and conceived the idea that he would appear uninvolved if he were also injured. Zeigler telephoned a judge’s residence, where he knew police officers would be gathering for a Christmas party, and reported a robbery. At trial, Zeigler maintained that his wife and parents-in-law were killed during the course of a robbery and that Mays was involved but was killed by his confederates.

    Zeigler was resentenced to death in Duval County on August 17, 1989.

  2. #2
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    DC# 053948
    DOB: 07/24/45

    Ninth Judicial Circuit, Orange County, Trial venue changed to Fourth Judicial Circuit

    Circuit Court Cases: #76-1076 & 76-1082 (4th Circuit), #88-5355 & 88-5356 (9th Circuit)

    Judge, Trial: The Honorable Maurice M. Paul

    Attorney, Trial: Ralph V. Hadley III

    Attorney, Direct Appeal: H. Vernon Davids

    Attorney, Collateral Appeals: John Houston Pope – Private


    Date of Offense: 12/24/75

    Date of Sentence: 07/16/76

    Date of Resentence: 08/17/89


    Trial Summary:

    07/02/76 The defendant was found guilty of the following counts:

    Count I: First-Degree Murder (Eunice Zeigler)

    Count II: First-Degree Murder (Charles Mays, Jr.)

    Count III: Second-Degree Murder (Virginia Edwards)

    Count IV: Second-Degree Murder (Perry Edwards)

    07/16/76 Upon advisory sentencing, the jury recommended by a majority vote

    a sentence of life imprisonment for each of the convictions.

    07/16/76 The trial judge overruled the jury’s recommendations and sentenced

    the defendant as follows:

    Count I: First-Degree Murder (Eunice Zeigler) – Death

    Count II: First-Degree Murder (Charles Mays, Jr.) – Death

    Count III: Second-Degree Murder (Virginia Edwards) – Life in Prison

    Count IV: Second-Degree Murder (Perry Edwards) – Life in Prison


    Resentencing Summary:

    08/17/89 The resentencing judge overruled the jury’s recommendation of life

    imprisonment and resentenced the defendant to death for each of the two first-degree murder convictions.


    Appeal Summary:

    Florida Supreme Court – Direct Appeal

    FSC #50,355

    402 So. 2d 365


    08/13/76 Appeal filed.

    06/11/81 FSC affirmed the convictions and sentences.

    09/18/81 Motion for rehearing denied.


    U.S. Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Certiorari

    USSC #81-5908

    455 U.S. 1035


    12/17/81 Petition filed.

    03/22/82 USSC denied petition for writ of certiorari.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #81-140


    02/20/81 Petition filed.

    04/27/81 USDC denied petition for writ of habeas corpus.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #82-1034


    10/14/82 Petition filed.

    01/03/86 USDC dismissed case.


    Florida Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    FSC #62,752

    421 So. 2d 1


    10/15/82 Petition filed.

    10/18/82 FSC denied petition for writ of habeas corpus.


    State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

    CC #76-1076 & #76-1082


    01/14/83 Motion filed.

    03/25/83 Trial court denied 3.850 motion.


    Florida Supreme Court – 3.850 Motion Appeal

    FSC #63,606

    452 So. 2d 537


    05/02/83 Appeal filed.

    06/21/84 FSC remanded for evidentiary hearing.


    State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

    CC #76-1076 & #76-1082


    08/30/84 Evidentiary hearing held.


    Florida Supreme Court – 3.850 Motion Appeal

    FSC #63,606

    473 So. 2d 203


    05/02/85 FSC affirmed denial of 3.850 Motion.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #86-333


    01/06/86 Petition filed.

    05/16/86 USDC denied petition for writ of habeas corpus.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #82-1034


    05/09/86 Motion to reopen case filed.

    05/16/86 Motion denied.


    Florida Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis

    FSC #68,765

    494 So. 2d 957


    05/16/86 Petition filed.

    05/19/86 FSC denied petition for writ of error coram nobis.


    U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Appeal

    USCA #86-3310 (USDC #82-1034)

    805 F. 2d 1422


    05/16/86 Appeal filed.

    11/24/86 USCA vacated district court’s judgments and remanded.


    State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

    CC #76-1076 & #76-1082


    05/18/86 Motion filed.

    05/18/86 Trial court ordered evidentiary hearing


    Florida Supreme Court – 3.850 Motion Appeal

    FSC #68,774

    494 So. 2d 957


    05/18/86 State filed appeal.

    05/19/86 FSC reversed trial court’s order for evidentiary hearing, vacated stay.


    U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Appeal

    USCA #86-3311 (USDC #86-333)

    805 F. 2d 1422


    05/20/86 Appeal filed.

    11/24/86 USCA vacated district court’s judgments and remanded.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #86-333


    05/29/87 Amended petition filed.

    05/04/88 USDC dismissed case without prejudice.


    Florida Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    FSC #71,463

    524 So. 2d 419


    11/18/87 Petition filed.

    04/07/88 FSC vacated sentence of death, remanded for resentencing.

    06/01/88 Motion for rehearing denied.


    State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

    CC #88-5355 & 88-5356


    09/14/88 Motion filed.

    04/21/89 Evidentiary hearing held.

    08/17/89 Trial court resentenced the defendant to death for each of the two

    first-degree murder convictions.

    10/20/89 Amended motion filed.

    05/27/92 Evidentiary hearing held.

    06/19/92 Trial court denied 3.850 motion.


    Florida Supreme Court – Direct Appeal (RS)

    FSC #74,663

    580 So. 2d 127


    09/05/89 Appeal filed.

    09/20/89 State filed cross-appeal.

    04/11/91 FSC affirmed the sentences.

    06/12/91 Motion for rehearing denied.

    07/12/91 Mandate issued.


    U.S. Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Certiorari

    USSC #91-5765

    502 U.S. 946


    09/10/91 Petition filed.

    11/04/91 USSC denied petition for writ of certiorari.


    Florida Supreme Court – 3.850 Motion Appeal

    FSC #80,176

    632 So. 2d 48


    07/17/92 Appeal filed.

    11/04/93 FSC affirmed denial of 3.850 Motion.

    11/18/93 Motion for rehearing denied.

    01/05/94 Mandate issued.


    State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

    CC #88-5355 & #88-5356


    03/07/94 Motion filed.

    06/24/94 Trial court denied 3.850 Motion.


    U.S. Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Certiorari

    USSC #93-9002

    513 U.S. 830


    04/05/94 Petition filed.

    10/03/94 FSC denied petition for writ of certiorari.


    Florida Supreme Court – Appeal of 3.850 Denial

    FSC #84,066

    654 So. 2d 1162


    07/25/94 Appeal filed.

    04/13/95 FSC affirmed denial of 3.850 Motion.

    05/23/95 Motion for rehearing denied.


    Florida Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    FSC #84,561

    650 So. 2d 992


    10/20/94 Petition filed.

    12/20/94 FSC denied petition for writ of habeas corpus.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #82-1034


    08/19/95 Petition to reopen case filed.

    08/21/95 USDC granted motion to reopen case and vacated 01/03/86 dismissal.

    08/21/95 Amended petition filed.

    07/11/00 USDC denied petition for writ of habeas corpus.


    U.S. District Court, Middle District – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus

    USDC #86-333


    08/21/95 Petition to reopen case filed.

    02/08/95 USDC vacated 05/04/88 opinion, granted filing of amended petition.

    02/08/96 Amended petition filed.

    07/10/00 USDC denied petition for writ of habeas corpus.

    07/31/00 Rehearing denied.


    U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit – Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus Appeal

    USCA #00-14573

    345 F. 3d 1300


    08/29/00 Appeal filed

    09/19/03 Appeal denied.

    12/31/03 Rehearing denied.


    State Circuit Court – 3.850 Motion

    CC #88-5355


    01/15/03 3.850 Motion filed.

    04/19/05 Motion denied.

    06/08/05 Rehearing denied.


    U.S. Supreme Court – Petition for Writ of Certiorari

    USSC #03-10641

    543 U.S. 842


    05/28/04 Petition filed.

    10/04/04 Petition denied.


    Florida Supreme Court – 3.850 Motion Appeal

    FSC# 05-1333

    967 So.2d 125


    08/01/05 Appeal filed.

    06/28/07 FSC affirmed denial of motion

    07/13/07 Motion for Rehearing filed.

    10/02/07 Motion for Rehearing denied.

    10/18/07 Mandate issued.


    State Circuit Court – Petition for DNA Testing

    CC #88-5355 & #88-5356


    08/28/09 Petition filed.


    Warrants:

    09/28/82 Death warrant signed by Governor Graham.

    10/22/82 Scheduled execution date.

    10/19/82 United States District Court, Northern District, granted stay of execution.

    04/18/86 Death warrant signed by Governor Graham.

    05/20/86 Scheduled execution date.

    05/18/86 United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, granted stay of execution.


    Factors Contributing to the Delay in the Imposition of Sentence:

    Contributors to the delays in this case are: a resentencing, which essentially started the appeals process anew; the sheer number of appeals the defendant as filed at 28; the defendant’s first direct appeal, which was decided nearly five years after filing; Zeigler’s third 3.850 motion that was in the trial court for nearly four years; two federal habeas petitions that were in U.S. District Court for five years; and apparent “confusion, misunderstanding, inadvertence, changes in representation, (and) recalcitrant counsel,” as cited by the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals considering Zeigler’s federal habeas petitions in the mid-1980s, factors the court said had the effect of denying the defendant the opportunity to have his claims “effectively presented and fully considered in federal court.” These factors complicated and prolonged the federal appeals.

    Case information:

    Zeigler filed a direct appeal in the Florida Supreme Court in 1976. While the case was pending, the defendant petitioned the U.S. District Court, Middle District, for a writ of habeas corpus. In 1981, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and sentences and the district court denied the habeas petition. The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari on the direct appeal the following year.

    The signing of Zeigler’s first death warrant in 1982 prompted the filing of a second habeas petition with the U.S. District Court and a habeas in the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court denied the habeas petition three days after filing. The district court stayed the execution and, in dismissing the case in 1986, directed Zeigler to initiate all available state appeals before approaching the court again.

    In 1983, the defendant filed his first 3.850 motion in the trial court, which was denied. On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court held that of the 19 points argued in the motion, all but two were, or could have been, raised at trial or on direct appeal and were not cognizable under rule 3.850. The court did consider two claims: that Zeigler did not receive effective counsel at trial, and that his right to due process and a fair trial was violated because the trial judge was actually or potentially biased. The Florida Supreme Court in 1984 remanded for an evidentiary hearing on the possible bias of the trial judge. After the hearing, the trial court again rejected the claim and the Florida Supreme Court affirmed in 1985.

    Zeigler filed a third habeas petition in the U.S. District Court in January 1986. In May of that year a second death warrant was signed and a number of appeals followed. The defendant petitioned the district court to reopen his 1982 federal habeas case. The district court denied both requests and Zeigler appealed the two cases to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which granted a stay of execution, vacated the district court’s judgments and remanded. Also in 1986, Zeigler filed his second 3.850 motion with the trial court, which ordered an evidentiary hearing on one of his claims concerning restrictions on the presentation of nonstatutory mitigating factors. The state appealed, and in a consolidated opinion the Florida Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s decision, denied all 3.850 relief and denied the defendant’s petition for a writ of error coram nobis.

    In 1987, the defendant amended his 1986 federal habeas petition and filed with the district court. The following year, the court dismissed the case without prejudice. Zeigler filed his second state habeas petition in the Florida Supreme Court in 1987. He claimed he was entitled to relief under Hitchcock v. Dugger, in which the U.S. Supreme Court found reversible error where the jury was instructed to consider only statutorily enumerated mitigating circumstances and where the trial judge declined to consider nonstatutory mitigating circumstances. In its 1988 opinion, the Florida Supreme Court agreed and vacated the sentence and remanded for an evidentiary hearing. Because the jury had already rendered an advisory sentence of life imprisonment, the court directed that the hearing occur only before a judge.

    In 1988, a third 3.850 motion to address issues arising out of the conviction phase was filed and the trial court venue was moved from the Fourth Circuit back to the Ninth Circuit with new case numbers. While the motion was pending, the court resentenced Zeigler to death in 1989. The defendant filed a direct appeal and the sentence and the state cross-appealed the trial judge’s failure to find an aggravating circumstance during resentencing. In 1991, the state supreme court affirmed the trial court’s decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the defendant’s petition for certiorari.

    In the 3.850 motion that had been pending during resentencing, Zeigler made five claims alleging misconduct by the state and the trial judge. The trial court in 1992 ruled all the claims were procedurally barred and denied the motion. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed on appeal in 1993 and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review. The defendant in 1994 filed his fourth 3.850 motion with the trial court, which was denied. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the decision in 1995.

    The defendant in 1994 filed his third habeas petition in the Florida Supreme Court. He claimed the high court erred by not conducting a meaningful review of the resentencing judge’s override of the jury recommendation of life imprisonment, that the supreme court erred in applying the “avoiding lawful arrest” aggravating circumstance in the case, that the court erred in affirming the doubling of aggravating circumstances in the Mays murder, that the court erred in relying on a precedent rejected in Espinoza v. Florida to uphold the “heinous, atrocious and cruel” aggravating circumstance, and that the death sentence should be set aside because the jury recommendation of life imprisonment was based on the panel’s residual doubt about Zeigler’s guilt. The court without comment denied the petition in 1994.

    Zeigler in 1995 petitioned U.S. District Court to reopen his federal habeas cases. The court in 1996 vacated its previous opinions and reopened the cases. The defendant filed amended habeas petitions in 1995 and 1996. The court denied both in July 2000 and Zeigler appealed to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. That appeal was denied 09/19/03 and the rehearing was denied 12/31/03.

    Zeigler filed a 3.850 Motion in the State Circuit Court on 1/15/03, which was denied on 04/19/05.

    Zeigler filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari in the United States Supreme Court on 05/28/04, which was denied on 10/04/04.

    On 08/01/05, Zeigler filed a 3.850 Appeal in the Florida Supreme Court. On 06/28/07, the FSC affirmed the denial of the motion. On 07/13/07, Zeigler filed a Motion for Rehearing, which was denied on 10/02/07. The Florida Supreme Court issued a mandate in this case on 10/18/07.

    Zeigler filed a petition for DNA testing in the State Circuit Court on 08/28/09. This petition is currently pending.

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    'Citizen advocate' wants to free death row inmate

    It was a Sunday, visiting hours in the Death Row Cafe.

    Ray McEachern was surrounded by 20 murderers. There was the guy who toppled his victim with a hunk of concrete. A man who slashed two throats. A child predator who killed an 11-year-old girl.

    Somehow the danger seemed far away. The men in orange jumpsuits sat at stainless steel tables with relatives, friends, pen pals. They ate microwaved burgers purchased for a dollar at a tiny window. They laughed and played dominoes and Scrabble. They clutched hands with women in dresses and heels.

    McEachern, dressed in black Velcro sneakers and a Florida State University ball cap, paid them no heed. He was waiting to see Tommy Zeigler, on death row for the murder of his wife, in-laws and a customer at his Winter Garden furniture store in 1975.

    There was Zeigler, 65, coming through the door. He was thinner than McEachern remembered. It had been four months since his last visit.

    They got popcorn, threw it in the microwave. They talked about the latest FSU football game. They talked about whether Lee Harvey Oswald actually killed John F. Kennedy. They talked about a paperback Zeigler was reading, Kane and Abel.

    McEachern is 72. He's got grandkids. He runs a dog treat bakery with his son in Land O'Lakes. He's a staunch Republican. He's a firm believer in the death penalty.

    But he spends his days trying to set Zeigler free.

    • • •

    Ray McEachern grew up in Plant City and Palm Harbor. He marched against the Vietnam War. He volunteered in the Philippines. He moved to Washington, D.C., and became a budget analyst for the Peace Corps and a program analyst for the Office of Economic Opportunity.

    For years, he heard about Zeigler, convicted in one of the most high-profile cases in Central Florida history.

    Ray's brother, Leigh, was one of the cops who arrested Zeigler in Orange County back in 1975. But Leigh was never sure the guy in custody had done it. There were just too many unanswered questions. Later, Leigh was disturbed by a meeting between the judge and the state attorney before the trial. He said he heard the judge tell the state attorney that if he got at least one first-degree murder conviction against Zeigler, "I'll fry the son of a b----." Both men later denied this.

    But back then, Zeigler was just a family story.

    Ray was busy. He and his wife, Pat, raised two kids. He dabbled in business — a RadioShack, a dry cleaners, a vending machine operation.

    He fought battles. He successfully sued the University of South Florida College of Medicine for $200,000 after a botched medical procedure left his wife partly paralyzed. He crusaded for 10 years to change state law and give patients access to profiles of their doctors. He went after a veterinarian in court for letting his dog die.

    In 2007, Ray and his wife moved to a beige house in a Land O'Lakes gated community with their two Boston terriers, Blossom and Misty. Retired, Ray found himself wandering the house with nothing to do. He watched a lot of Fox News. He cleared the swamp in his back yard and put in a lawn.

    He read a book about the Zeigler case called Fatal Flaw. He was struck by author Phillip Finch's conclusion: "What happened to Tommy Zeigler is wrong, by the standards that most of us accept."

    Ray couldn't stop thinking about the Zeigler case. He'd done some acting in high school and college, written a skit. He decided to write a play about Zeigler. The audience could vote at the end on whether the man was guilty.

    He held a casting call in his gated community. The dozen actors practiced for a couple of months in the community ballroom. Ray played Zeigler.

    The production fell apart, but Ray felt an old passion rekindled. It had to do with righting a wrong.

    Ray spoke with his brother about the case. Leigh had served time for stealing money from his department, a charge he denied. Now he and his wife were raising eight adopted children, several of them cocaine babies. Leigh was too busy to take on Zeigler's cause full time, but Ray was not.

    He started a website called freetommyz.com. He got hold of the trial transcript from 1976 and read all 3,000 pages. He wrote Zeigler a letter and asked to visit him. He organized a rally outside the Supreme Court building in Tallahassee.

    Zeigler had a pair of New York lawyers working on his appeals for free, and he has had many other champions during his 35 years on death row. Lots of lawyers. Anti-death penalty advocates. Finch, the author. But causes like this eat people up. Many of them had done what they could and then returned to their lives. Then Ray McEachern came along. He gave himself a fancy title: "citizen advocate."

    This was Ray's fight now.

    • • •

    In late November, Ray and his brother, Leigh, walked up to the former W.T. Zeigler Furniture store in Winter Garden. The sign outside the old square building now says Edgewood Childrens Ranch Thrift Store.

    Leigh stood at the entrance, looking in at piles of golf clubs and clumps of fake Christmas trees, racks of clothes and rows of bike helmets.

    Back on Christmas Day 1975, he walked past the crime scene tape up to this same store entrance and looked at a clipboard with a list of all the officials who had signed in to the crime scene. There were more than a dozen people on the list.

    "There were a lot of things that bothered me that day," he said.

    In 1975, Winter Garden was a town of about 6,000. Northwest of Orlando on Lake Apopka, it was surrounded by citrus groves and flush with black migrant workers during the harvest. It was too far from Disney to be a tourist destination.

    Tommy Zeigler's parents, Beulah and Tom, had owned the store since 1939. It was one of the few that extended credit to black customers.

    In 1975, Zeigler was 29. He helped his parents run the furniture store and several apartment buildings. He carried guns to collect the rent and the store debts. He'd been married for eight years. They were churchgoers.

    Zeigler was also active in community affairs. He had helped get the mayor elected. He'd been trying to get authorities to investigate loan sharking at the migrant labor camps. He'd testified as a character witness for a black liquor store owner who was about to lose his liquor license.

    On Christmas Eve, Zeigler and his wife were supposed to go to a Christmas party at a municipal judge's house. The police chief and his wife, close friends, were supposed to drive them there. But the Zeiglers weren't home when they came by to pick them up.

    Lots of witnesses would come forward with variations of what happened that night. But what is known is that sometime after 9 p.m., Zeigler called the judge's party from the furniture store. He said he'd been hurt.

    When police got there, Zeigler opened the front door of the dark store. He had been shot through the stomach. Some 28 shots had been fired throughout the store. Blood was splattered on the floor, the walls, the ceiling.

    Police found bodies: Zeigler's wife, Eunice, her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards, and a customer of the store, Charlie Mays. Mays was a citrus crew foreman; his wife said he had come to the store that night to pick up a TV.

    It was a complex murder scene. There were four murders and no eyewitnesses. But almost immediately, detectives focused on Zeigler.

    He had gotten life insurance policies for himself and his wife just three months before. A large amount of blood under the arm of his shirt matched the blood type of his father-in-law. But the most damning evidence against him came from a handyman named Edward Williams, who was supposed to make some furniture deliveries with Zeigler that night.

    Late Christmas Eve, after police took Zeigler to the hospital, Williams showed up at a police station. He claimed Zeigler tried to kill him earlier that night.

    While making deliveries, he said, he entered the back of the store and Zeigler pointed a gun at him and fired. For some reason, no bullets came out.

    "I heard the sound pop, pop, pop. Snapped three time. And I hollered, 'For God's sake, Mr. Tommy, don't kill me,' " he told police. "And then when I got out of the building he came behind me. He said, 'Edward, I didn't know that was you.' "

    Williams said Zeigler gave him the gun and tried to get him to come back inside. But Williams said he noticed blood on Zeigler's face and clothes, so he ran away with the gun.

    At the trial six months later, Zeigler gave his version of events. He said he tussled with two men in the dark store and lost his glasses. He was carrying a gun and he fired it at least once, and then it jammed and he threw it at his attackers. He was shot and lost consciousness. He woke and crawled around the store looking for his glasses. He may have crawled over a body and gotten blood on his shirt.

    He said he never shot at Williams, the handyman, and never had an appointment to meet Mays, the fourth victim, to give him a TV.

    Zeigler's lawyers suggested that Mays and Williams were perhaps part of a conspiracy to kill Zeigler to stop his advocacy against loan sharking at area labor camps. Mays, they said, likely died in the crossfire.

    Jurors believed Williams. But like everything else in the case, the verdict was not clear-cut. One juror said she had been pressured by other jurors to render a guilty verdict.

    The verdict stood. The jury recommended life. The judge changed it to death.

    Thirty-five years later, Leigh McEachern shook his head once again. "I always knew he didn't get a fair trial," he said, "but now I believe he was also innocent."

    He walked around to the back parking lot and pointed to a fence separating the former furniture store and a motel. Mays' van was found on the motel side of the fence.

    "I had questions about that," he said. "Why would someone coming to pick up a TV park his car there?"

    • • •

    At his home office in Land O'Lakes one day recently, Ray prepared to film his latest video for YouTube. He has filmed five of them.

    He called this one Theories of the Crime. He set up his videocamera on a piece of plywood. He put on his sunglasses. He said they gave him credibility.

    "If this guy had a record prior to this happening, I wouldn't be doing this," he said. "I couldn't be his friend."

    Ray tosses around details like birdseed. Why would the cuffs and legs of Charlie Mays' pants be covered in blood unless he'd been involved in the murders? Why was Zeigler's bullet wound dry when police got there if he shot himself after he called police? Would a man really kill his family and a store patron on Christmas Eve — minutes before he and his wife are to be picked up by the police chief for a Christmas party at a judge's house?

    "These are the things I lay awake at night thinking about."

    During the day, he spends hours dissecting the case. He has written to the governor, the attorney general, numerous judges, the Florida Bar, the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the FBI. He has hired private investigators at his own expense. He sent a petition with 448 signatures to the governor seeking clemency.

    "Probably no one has gone to the effort more than Ray has," said Zeigler's cousin, Connie Crawford, who visits him on death row once a month.

    Ray set his videocamera on record and picked up a plastic male torso he got online. Using a toy gun, he showed the trajectory of the bullet that struck Zeigler, 2 inches next to his navel. Then he stood and pointed the plastic gun awkwardly at his own abdomen. He looked at the camera.

    "According to the prosecution, he took this .357 Magnum and shot himself," Ray said. "How would you do this? It would be absurd."

    • • •

    Inside the death row visiting room, Ray and Zeigler were still making small talk.

    "What would you be doing with your life if you hadn't spent 35 years here?" Ray asked him. "You ever think about that?"

    They were sitting on stainless steel stools at a stainless steel table.

    "I take it for granted that I would be doing the same thing I was doing when this thing happened," Zeigler said.

    Zeigler munched on the burger Ray bought him. It was a treat. He complained that most of his meals have soy now — not meat.

    "Nothing against you," Ray said, "but as a taxpayer, I don't object."

    Ray doesn't hide his conservative views. He believes that if you kill someone, you deserve to die.

    Prosecutors and police in Orange County are still convinced Zeigler is guilty, but Ray has absolutely no doubt that he is innocent.

    They have become friends. Ray says he sees a lot of himself in Zeigler. Both are bald, thin and tall, but Ray says it's more than that.

    Ray's great-uncle, Jason Kersey, was a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. But Ray's grandfather, George W. Kersey, was a Pinellas County School Board member who prodded him to be judicious and civic minded, to ignore his great-uncle's comments, to see right from wrong. He was likely a guiding force in Ray's decision to join the Peace Corps.

    Ray sees in Zeigler someone who worked against the grain — before he ended up in a 9- by 6-foot cell. His efforts on behalf of the black liquor store owner. His political work. If Zeigler were free, Ray envisions he might step up on behalf of someone who he felt was wronged.

    The two men don't always agree on what to do, though. Ray wants Zeigler to seek clemency. Zeigler wants to let his lawyers work to clear his name.

    At this meeting in mid November, Ray brought it up again. Zeigler shot it down again.

    Zeigler's lawyers have gotten him a hearing in February on whether more DNA testing should be done. In 2004, a DNA test showed the blood on Zeigler's shirt belonged to Charlie Mays — not Zeigler's father-in-law, as prosecutors had claimed. Now they want to find out if the father-in-law's blood is anywhere on the shirt. If Zeigler did it, his attorneys say, the father-in-law's blood should be there.

    Ray complained that Zeigler's attorneys won't listen to him.

    "When I suggested you ought to ask for clemency, he said absolutely not," Ray said. "He doesn't want to know what I'm doing. He doesn't care what I'm doing."

    Zeigler nodded. "You can do things he can't do, Ray."

    Ray is not a lawyer. His methods and his motivation are different. He considers Zeigler a friend, but he doesn't answer to him.

    Ray paused. He took a bite of his burger. He looked around the room.

    "Let me tell you what I'm planning to do."

    He told him about the YouTube videos and how he's going to have a notice of them placed in the court record. He said his brother was writing to the attorney general.

    "I don't seek your approval," Ray said. "I do more or less what I think should be done."

    Zeigler nodded. He is thankful for Ray.

    He told Ray: "It's up to you."

    http://www.tampabay.com/features/hum...cle1143829.ece

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Attorneys ask for more blood-testing evidence in Tommy Zeigler case

    A short court hearing was held in Orlando this morning in the long-running death penalty case of William Thomas Zeigler, the man convicted of killing three family members and a customer inside his Winter Garden furniture store on Christmas Eve 1975.

    Zeigler and his attorneys want a new round of DNA testing conducted on blood-stained evidence from the crime scene. They maintain the evidence will point to Zeigler's innocence, something Zeigler has argued all these years. A hearing on those issues was originally scheduled for next week.

    However, Zeigler's New York-based attorneys John Houston Pope and Dennis Tracey III say a defense witness used to review the blood evidence several years back is no longer able or willing to work on the case.

    They want a new expert to work on the case and they want the state to pay for that expert. Testing on the evidence, Tracey said today, "we believe can show Mr. Zeigler's innocence."

    The new expert, Timothy Palmbach, works with blood spatter evidence an does forensic analysis work.

    But Assistant State Attorney Jeff Ashton, another veteran of this case, expressed concerns about the defense team "switching experts."

    "I don't want any expert shopping going on here," Ashton said.

    Ashton also noted that the Justice Administrative Commission, which provides funds for indigent defendants like Zeigler, was not notified about the defense team's wishes.

    Ultimately, Orange Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead decided to continue next week's hearing on the DNA testing arguments and let the JAC offer its opinions on the appointment of the new expert.

    Whitehead reserved ruling on the approval of funding for the expert until the new hearing with the JAC present is held. No date has been set yet for that hearing. After that proceeding, the evidentiary hearing on the DNA testing will be scheduled.

    Zeigler, 65, filed his petition for the new DNA testing in August 2009.

    His case involves one of Central Florida's most notorious and bizarre crimes. The killings of his wife, in-laws and store customer Charlie Mays took place in the family furniture store in Winter Garden. Only Zeigler was found alive, shot in the abdomen; investigators said it was self-inflicted.

    From the start, Zeigler claimed a group of men attacked him and his family in the store. He says he engaged in some fighting and a struggle during the attack.

    Several years ago, Zeigler's legal team and Ashton argued about DNA findings that showed some blood evidence on Zeigler's shirt was linked to the wrong victim.

    During the 1976 trial, the prosecution suggested Zeigler held his father-in-law, Perry Edwards, in a headlock while striking him with a metal crank. This was an explanation for the bloodstain found on the underarm of Zeigler's shirt.

    But the DNA test results discussed during that hearing showed that the blood actually belonged to Mays, the other man killed in the store. The tests also showed that blood found on Mays' shoes and pants was consistent with Edwards' blood.

    Whitehead ruled, however, that the new findings likely would not have changed the jury's guilty verdict back in 1976, when the DNA testing was not available.

    Today, Pope and Tracey said they intend to do re-testing and additional testing on clothing to further explore the evidence, which they say supports Zeigler's account of what happened that night. They also want to use the testing to refute issues raised by Ashton during the hearing several years back.

    Results of testing on the evidence, if approved by the court, is still months away, the defense lawyers said.

    The defense has also asked that Whitehead waive Zeigler's appearance during future hearings. Tracey said Zeigler was "submitted to some treatment in the past that was unpleasant," at the Orange County Jail.

    Tracey said Zeigler was "ankle-ironed," which caused severe abrasions on his ankles, and was physically assaulted. "He's very concerned about his welfare," Tracey said.

    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...,3353880.story

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Chief's daughter: Fla. death row inmate innocent

    The daughter of a former central Florida police chief who helped convict a furniture store owner of the murders of three relatives and a handyman 35 years ago says she believes the death row inmate is innocent.

    Christine Cooper said Monday that she believes that Tommy Zeigler was wrongfully convicted of the Christmas Eve 1975 deaths of his wife, in-laws and a handyman at his Winter Garden store.

    Cooper, the daughter of former Oakland, Fla. police chief Robert Thompson, spoke at a news conference outside the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, along with a private investigator who says she has a new theory on the case.

    The private investigator, Lynn-Marie Carty, says Zeigler was framed for the murders because he spoke out against corruption in Winter Garden.

    http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/1...#ixzz1JEFkLhWa

  6. #6
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    Court Hearing Held For Tommy Zeigler

    For an Orange County man who has been on death row for more than 35 years, a hearing Thursday could be his last chance.

    Attorneys for Tommy Zeigler say he didn't kill his wife, his in-laws and another man, but was instead a victim in his own furniture store.

    "I am innocent of these murders," Zeigler said.

    Zeigler's story hasn't changed. He said when he walked into his furniture store on Christmas Eve in 1975, his wife, her parents and a customer were already dead.

    Zeigler said he was attacked and shot and has been on death row for 35 years.

    A blood spatter expert said Zeigler's clothes need to be tested again for DNA. Testing was not available in the 1970s, but prosecutors said a test a few years ago did not exonerate Zeigler.

    The defense wants another chance to see if Zeigler is lying.

    "Given the different locations I have selected, I think it would be highly likely we would pick up a lie relative to him not being near other people," Paul Kitsch said.

    The prosecution argues the defense has had its chances over and over again.

    "If it doesn't come back to Perry Edwards, it doesn't mean he didn't kill Perry Edwards does it?" Kitsch said. "It doesn't mean that he did."

    http://www.wesh.com/news/29898171/de...#ixzz1fJ9cE4iv

  7. #7
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Advocates keep swinging for Fla. death row inmate

    RAIFORD, Fla. (AP) - In 35 years on Florida's death row, Tommy Zeigler's cries of innocence have swayed a former newspaper editor, the daughter of a police chief who helped put him behind bars and an assortment of others who have come to believe that he didn't commit one of the state's most notorious mass slayings of the 1970s.

    A reporter wrote a book about him called "Fatal Flaw," and national TV programs including "Unsolved Mysteries" turned a skeptical eye on the evidence. His many supporters now range from a former sheriff's deputy who helped investigate the slayings to celebrity civil rights activist Bianca Jagger. A private investigator believes in the 66-year-old Zeigler's innocence so strongly that she picked up his case last year and has worked on it almost full time for free.

    On April 11, Zeigler's longtime lawyers tried again to get the appeals courts to re-examine his case. A new motion claims evidence turned up recently by the investigator pokes more holes in the case against Zeigler and creates enough new reasonable doubt to tip the scales in favor of a new trial. The document claims prosecutors lied and withheld information from Zeigler's lawyers including the existence of a key witness.

    Prosecutors then and now have portrayed Zeigler as a calculating monster who slaughtered his wife, her parents and another man in the family furniture store on Christmas Eve 1975 to collect insurance money.

    Of Florida's 399 condemned prisoners, only 11 have been on death row longer than Zeigler. Having already survived two death warrants, he can't help but wonder how soon his time will come now that the state's death chamber is humming again. Four men have been executed in the past seven months under Gov. Rick Scott the latest on April 12. Two of them had been there three decades or more. Zeigler knew them well; they were as close to friends as anyone gets in "P-Dorm" at Union Correctional Institution.

    "When I left on July 16, 1976, and came to death row, my lawyers told me not to bother to unpack, they'd have me out in six months," Zeigler said in an interview at the prison recently. "It's been a long six months."

    From the beginning, it wasn't just his defense team that doubted William Thomas Zeigler Jr. was capable of committing the awful crimes.

    At 30 he had more than a million dollars in assets thanks to his family's furniture store, and was a well-liked and prominent figure in the small town of Winter Garden, just west of Orlando. He and his wife Eunice lived in a nice house not far from the store, doted on their many Persian cats and seemed to get along just fine. He'd never been arrested.

    That's why it is still so hard for many to believe that he was responsible for the bloody, confusing scene at the W.T. Zeigler Furniture store on Dec. 24, 1975. Prosecutors say it happened like this: Zeigler lured Eunice to the store to kill her, and her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards, got in the way. A migrant worker Zeigler knew named Charlie Mays was killed, too. Then Zeigler shot himself in the stomach to make it appear as if they'd been the victims of a robbery. He staged it all so he could collect on a $500,000 life insurance policy he took out on his wife just months before. All the victims were shot.

    Neither side disputes that Zeigler, at 9:20 that night, called the house of a municipal judge who was hosting a Christmas party with many prominent people in attendance and reported that he'd been shot at the store.

    The story Zeigler told that night is the same story he tells today. He says he went to the store to do some last minute Christmas deliveries. Unbeknownst to him, his wife and in-laws, who had come to look at a recliner that was to be her father's Christmas present, were already dead in various places in the store when he arrived. After finding the lights shut off at the breaker box, he was hit over the head and beaten by two men. He lost his glasses but managed to find and fire one of the guns he kept in the store. He believes Mays who had cash from the store stuffed in his pocket was one of the attackers and was killed in the gunfight. Zeigler says that when he came to after being knocked out, he was the only one left alive in the store. Whoever else attacked him had fled.

    Zeigler had a reputation in town for sticking up for minorities and migrants who worked picking fruit in the area. He and others believe he was attacked and then framed in a law-enforcement conspiracy because he was about to uncover corruption involving high-ranking local officials, including a loansharking operation that preyed on the migrant workers.

    Zeigler was found guilty on July 2, 1976, amid allegations of juror misconduct. One of the jurors, now dead, said in media interviews after the trial that she believed Zeigler was innocent and that she was harassed and coerced into voting guilty by other jurors who wanted to finish up in time for the nation's Bicentennial celebration two days later. The jury then voted to recommend a life sentence for Zeigler, but the judge in an exceedingly rare move in Florida overruled the panel and sentenced him to death.

    Zeigler's appeals were enough to get stays of execution twice after governors signed death warrants. He once came to within a half day of execution. A second sentencing hearing ordered by an appeals court two decades ago resulted in another death sentence. More recent appeals have fallen on deaf judicial ears.

    Even so, Zeigler has picked up a growing wave of support through the years. One of his early advocates was David Burgin, who was hired as the Orlando Sentinel's editor in 1981. Burgin said the more he looked into the case and studied court transcripts, the more he believed his newspaper had treated Zeigler unfairly. He continued to advocate for Zeigler as he moved on to other newspaper jobs through the years, but now is retired and in ill health.

    In 2003 he wrote a letter to then-Gov. Jeb Bush calling attention to Zeigler's case and publicly apologizing for the newspaper's failure to question prosecutors' version of events and being biased against Zeigler from the beginning. The newspaper, Burgin wrote, "spent no time trying to cover the case with a hard eye on the defendant's story." He said he's convinced the case against Zeigler was contrived and that he was framed.

    "It's a collection of lies and false assumptions," the 73-year-old Burgin said in a telephone interview recently. "His whole life is gone, and he's still getting screwed. It's just so damn unfair that it's pathetic."

    Lynn-Marie Carty, the St. Petersburg-based investigator, heard about Zeigler's case last year and was moved to get involved. She said she found a witness whose existence she claims was acknowledged then denied by prosecutors at the time, as well as an attempted robbery at a gas station the same night across the street from the furniture store. Zeigler's lawyers claim prosecutors knew this information but withheld it at trial.

    Carty said the witness didn't acknowledge anything beyond that he was in the same county at the time. An investigator had testified at trial that the witnesses' name was a typographical error in a report. It's not clear what the witness may have said had he ever testified, but they say proof that he exists supports their contention of perjury.

    The daughter of the former police chief of the adjacent town of Oakland now says she believes Zeigler is innocent and may have been framed by her father and others. Robert Thompson was among the first officers on the scene the night of the slayings and drove Zeigler to the hospital.

    Christine Cooper said her father died in 1999 "taking a lot of secrets with him."

    Leigh McEachern, a former Orange County chief deputy, said that there was evidence the sheriff's office didn't process at the time because investigators assumed Zeigler was guilty. He said that enough new evidence has surfaced since then that he now believes Zeigler to be innocent.

    Zeigler is heartened by the new attempts to prove his innocence, but at the same time he's gotten used to new supporters enthusiastically joining the effort only to go on their way when they find they can't get anything done for him.

    "Every year," he said in the interview last month, "another piece of this puzzle comes together."

    Zeigler's attorneys are now asking a judge to grant him a new trial based on a number of claims, including that prosecutors used false and misleading testimony and concealed evidence, and that the new evidence would likely produce his acquittal.

    "Newly discovered evidence establishes that the State concealed material information from the defense in this case a case based on circumstantial evidence and involved an initially deadlocked jury," said the motion, filed in state circuit court last week.

    State attorney's office spokeswoman Danielle Tavernier declined to comment on the case except to say that prosecutors will fight the new motion in court.

    Source
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  8. #8
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    Zeigler's attorneys: We want new trial

    More than 36 years after the bloody murders that landed him on death row, Tommy Zeigler's legal fight continued on Thursday afternoon, when his lawyers asked a judge for a hearing that could ultimately lead to a new trial.

    Zeigler, the Winter Garden furniture store owner convicted in the bloody Christmas Eve 1975 slayings of four people, did not attend Thursday's hearing. He remains in the Union Correctional Institution in Raiford.

    Zeigler's wife, in-laws and a man named Charlie Mays were killed in Zeigler's store. Zeigler was found there alive, shot in the abdomen, but investigators said the wound was self-inflicted in a scheme to collect $500,000 in insurance.

    Zeigler, now 67, claims he was wounded fighting his family's attackers, including Mays. He maintains his innocence, and has been fighting his murder convictions for decades.

    His latest salvo involves a new witness: Robert Foster, whose name was contained in an initial report of the shooting, but later explained away by authorities as the result of a typographical error and not a real witness to the crime, Zeigler's defense says.

    However, Zeigler's attorneys say they've found Foster, and allege he was hidden by the state at trial. He was a criminal who knew Mays, they argued, and who had committed a robbery in close proximity to the crime scene.

    "That information would have materially affected the jurors' verdict," argued defense attorney John Houston Pope.

    Pope argued Circuit Judge Reginald Whitehead should grant a hearing, in which the defense can call witnesses in support of granting Zeigler a new trial.

    "In 1976, the full truth didn't get out," Pope said.

    However, Senior Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Nunnelly countered that the defense's request wasn't timely. Foster's name "has been in this case since the very, very beginning," he said.

    "This man, Robert Foster, whoever he is, apparently was alive in 1975... but they only got around to looking for him in 2011, or maybe 2010," said Nunnelly, who told Whitehead the case is "not a circumstantial evidence case. This is a direct evidence case."

    Whitehead didn't decide Thursday whether to grant the defense's request for an evidentiary hearing. Pope's co-counsel Dennis Tracey said he expects a decision could take two to five months.

    The judge denied Zeigler's previous request to have DNA tests performed on his clothing from the night of the murders. His defense had argued that a lack of blood from one of the victims, Zeigler's father-in-law Perry Edwards, on those clothes would have shown that Zeigler didn't commit the severe beating Edwards suffered.

    In June, independent filmmaker Christian Bruyere announced at a press conference in downtown Orlando that he had begun work on a documentary about Zeigler. After meeting with the convicted killer and hearing him tell his story, Bruyere said he was convinced Zeigler deserves a new trial.

    http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...-tommy-zeigler
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  9. #9
    I always had doubt about Zeiglers guilt in this crime. I read somewhere awhile back he even took a polygraph test and passed.Quite possibly the only convicted murderer on death row I believe may be innocent. I won't go so far as to say he is innocent, but I have my doubts about his guilt

    I hate to say it but I strongly believe in William Zeiglers innocence. The State of Florida is just better served letting him serve out his time on DR without a warrant and die in prison though because if this man were to be freed on a wrongful conviction, the anti's will blow this case up 100x worse nationwide then the case of Troy Davis. Zeiglers old, he doesn't have much time left anyway

  10. #10
    Moderator Dave from Florida's Avatar
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    With all due respect, Ziegler is guilty and a compulsive liar. I have followed this case for 30 years. The murder scene is close to my wife's childhood home in Winter Garden.

    Read up on how Ziegler plotted to kill others outside the prison and tried to get another inmate, Daniel Thomas to confess to the furniture store murders. Thomas was notorious for home invasion murders which he died for in another case.

    Whether a Florida Governor would sign a death warrant at this stage is unknown. The original jury surprisingly recommended life imprisonment.
    Last edited by Dave from Florida; 12-16-2013 at 03:58 PM.

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