DNA Evidence Overturns Conviction Of Florida Man Who Spent 28 Years On Death Row

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/27/florida-death-row-sentence-overturned-paul-hildwin

A prisoner in Florida who has spent 28 years on death row has had his murder conviction and death sentence overturned after DNA evidence destroyed the prosecution case used against him almost three decades ago.

Paul Hildwin, 54, will remain on death row as he waits to find out whether the Florida authorities intend to prosecute him for a second time after the state’s supreme court vacated his conviction and sentence and ordered a retrial. In a 5-2 ruling, the majority of the court said that “we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a significant pillar of the state’s case, as presented to the jury, has collapsed.”

In 1990, Hildwin came close to losing his life at the hands of Florida after a death warrant was issued and a date set for his execution. But tenacious legal work by the Innocence Project of Florida fended off his death, and painstakingly revealed crucial details pointing to his wrongful conviction.

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The state said the tests showed that the source of the material had to have been a “nonsecretor” – a man who did not secrete blood into other bodily fluids, which narrowed the field of possible suspects to 11% of white males. Hildwin was a “nonsecretor”, the jury was told, while Haverty, who the defence claimed was the true culprit, was a “secretor”.

In 2003, the “nonsecretor” argument used as a central tenet of the prosecution case was conclusively undermined after DNA tests of the samples proved that Hildwin could not have been the source. But it still took the Innocence Project a further seven years of legal tussling to force the state of Florida to check the semen and saliva remains against a national crime database.

In 2010, the Florida supreme court ordered the check to be done, and that in turn revealed a positive match from the semen sample to Haverty. Now aged 50, Haverty is currently serving a 20-year sentence for attempted child sexual assault.

Were Hildwin to be exonerated, it would add to Florida’s long history of wrongful death sentences. It has exonerated 24 death row prisoners – more than any other state.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/us/florida-court-overturns-death-sentence-for-1985-killing.html?_r=0

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“The DNA evidence, Mr. Haverty’s criminal background and statements by witnesses who prove the crime couldn’t have occurred when originally thought, make it obviously clear that law enforcement went after the wrong person,” said Marty McClain, the local court-appointed lawyer who worked with the Innocence Project.