Florida

60 Cases

Main Menu

County:   Bradford   Brevard   Broward   Charlotte   Collier   Columbia   Dade   DeSoto   Duval   Escambia   Gulf   Highlands   Hillsborough   Lake   Lee   Leon   Levy   Monroe   Orange   Palm Beach   Pasco   Pinellas   Polk   Putnam   Santa Rosa   Seminole   Union   Volusia

Location

Defendant(s)

Date of Alleged Crime

Townsend, who is mentally retarded, was arrested in 1979 for the rape of a pregnant Miami woman.  During the investigation, he confessed to six murders.  He was convicted in 1980 for the 1973 murders of Naomi Gamble and Barbara Brown in Broward County.  In 1982, he pleaded guilty to two murders in Miami including the 1979 murder of 13-year-old Sonja Marion.  He also pleaded no contest to two 1979 murders in Broward County.  Including the original rape, Townsend received seven life terms.

In 1998, Sonja Marion's mother had a Fort Lauderdale police detective review the Townsend cases, and DNA testing cleared him of some crimes.  In 2000, DNA evidence implicated Eddie Lee Mosley as did evidence from Frank Lee Smith's case.  DNA evidence cast doubt on all of Townsend's confessions, and in 2001, he was cleared of all charges and released after being imprisoned for 22 years.  (IP085)  [6/05]

Along with Sonia "Sunny" Jacobs and Walter Rhodes, Jesse Joseph Tafero was convicted of murdering Florida highway patrolman, Phillip Black, and visiting Canadian constable, Donald Irwin, at an I-95 rest stop.  The conviction was based largely on the testimony of Rhodes, who named Tafero as the shooter.  The state withheld from the defense results of a polygraph that indicated Rhodes had failed.  The state also withheld gunpowder test results that indicated Rhodes was the only person to have fired a gun.

Rhodes recanted his testimony on three occasions in 1977, 1979, and 1982, stating that he, not Tafero, shot the policemen.  A statement from a prison guard corroborating Rhodes’ recantations was suppressed and found years later.  Rhodes has since reverted to his original testimony.  The trial judge, "Maximum Dan" Futch, had been a highway patrolman three years before the trial and wore his police hat to work.  He kept a miniature replica of an electric chair on his desk.  He did not allow Tafero to call witnesses, nor would not allow him hearings on this decision.  Two eyewitnesses, testifying for the state, said that while the shots were being fired, one officer was holding Tafero over the hood of the car.  Tafero was executed in the electric chair on May 4, 1990.  Officials interrupted the execution three times because flames and smoke shot out of his head.

Like Tafero, Jacobs was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1981.  In Jacobs’ 1992 appeal, the new evidence was presented which resulted in the reversal of her conviction.  Had the evidence been found before Tafero’s execution, it is highly probable that his conviction would have been likewise overturned.  Jacobs later accepted a plea bargain in which she did not have to admit guilt and was released.  She affirms her innocence.  A 1996 movie was made about the case entitled, "In the Blink of an Eye."  (NL)  [6/05]

Timothy Brown, a mentally retarded man, gave a garbled confession to the murder of Broward Sheriff's Deputy Patrick Behan for which he was convicted.  In 2001, the Miami Herald questioned the conviction in a series of investigative articles.  In 2003, a judge threw out Brown's confession and Brown was released on low bail.  It seems unlikely that he will be retried.

Brown's co-defendant, Keith King, also gave a confession after being coerced, threatened, and punched by detectives.  King served a reduced sentence on a plea bargain to manslaughter and was free at the time of Brown's release.  (Miami Herald) (AP News)  [9/05]

Ten years after the crime, Bradley P. Scott was convicted of the murder of Linda Pikuritz, 12, and sentenced to death.  In the immediate aftermath of the murder, the police ruled out Scott as a suspect because he had a sound alibi.  He was with his girlfriend shopping at the Sarasota Mall some 50 miles away at the time.  Seven years later, a new sheriff reopened the investigation and found some witnesses to testify that they saw Scott in the area of the convenience store from which the victim had been abducted.  Some of these witnesses knew Scott but had never before claimed to have seen him there that day.

Scott's girlfriend at the time of the murder was now his ex-wife and she testified that she had no memory of whether Scott was with her that day.  Evidence police developed to confirm Scott's alibi was now mysteriously missing from their files.  The prosecution argued that a dove shell found in Scott's car was similar to a shell on the victim's necklace and that a hair found in his car was compatible to the victim's hair.  Because of such evidence, Scott was convicted in 1988.

On appeal, the Florida Supreme Court overturned his conviction for insufficient evidence and ordered his acquittal.  It ruled, "Suspicions cannot be the basis for a criminal conviction."  Scott was released in 1991.  (PC) (NL)  [7/05]

Joseph F. Shea was convicted of murder after confessing to committing one.  The victim, Mary Meslener, 23, was a National Airlines clerk and was found on a canal bank three miles from Miami International Airport.  She had been shot once in the head.  More than two months after the murder, Shea, 20, an airman in the U.S. Air Force, waved a bloody shirt at his sergeant in West Palm Beach and vaguely insisted that he had done "something bad."  Because Shea had been trying to fake a medical discharge, the sergeant was skeptical.  However, the incident brought Shea to the attention of police.

After questioning Shea, Miami Detective Philip Thibedeau could find no connection between him and the murder.  Even so, Detective Patrick Gallagher soon obtained the airman's oral confession.  A polygraph expert, Warren Holmes, tested Shea and said that his tests indicated Shea was innocent.  However, the airman made another confession and this time signed it.  Though a crime lab supervisor testified that Shea's shirt was splattered with his own B-type blood and there was only one spot of Meslener's O-type, the confession persuaded a jury to find Shea guilty of first-degree murder.

Following the conviction, Detective Thibedeau, Polygrapher Holmes, and Miami Herald Reporter Gene Miller spent their spare time tracking down evidence that cast deep doubt on Shea’s confession.  Shea, a Roman Catholic, had apparently undergone agonies of guilt after fathering an illegitimate child in the Philippines: "I didn't want to live," he said.  Detective Gallagher admitted he engaged in trickery and had received half of the $1,000 reward posted by Meslener's husband.  The Air Force logbook at West Palm Beach suggested that Shea was on duty 65 miles away until at least one hour before Meslener left the airport.  Yet Shea claimed in his confession that he hitchhiked to Miami, visited several downtown bars, rode a bus to the airport, and then tried to steal a car.  Meslener then allegedly caught him at which point Shea had to murder her.

A palm print found in the murder car belonged to neither Shea nor the victim nor her husband.  The victim’s wallet was discovered in a military installation with which Shea had no connection.  Shea later claimed in prison that he had cut himself and bloodied his own shirt in the hope of qualifying for a medical discharge.  However, he also complained, "This woman I killed keeps standing at the foot of my bed and screaming at me."  With the help of the three investigators, Shea got a new trial and was acquitted in 1966.  He was awarded $45,000 in 1967 for 6 years of wrongful imprisonment.  (Time)  [1/07]

Arango was sentenced to death for the murder of Jario Posada.  When police arrived at the murder scene in Arango’s apartment, Arango told them that three armed men had robbed them and shot Posada.  He said two of the bandits had fled out the kitchen door while the third had jumped off the bedroom balcony.  Other than Arango, there were no eyewitnesses.  Two guns were found in the apartment, one of which was used to shoot Posada.  Neither of them had Arango’s fingerprints on them.  At trial, Arango took the stand and told his story, but the prosecutor argued to the jury that while his story created the possibility of a doubt, it did not create reasonable doubt, as it was totally uncorroborated by any physical evidence.

However, there was corroborating physical evidence, but it was withheld from the defense.  When police conducted a search the day after the murder, they found a cocked pistol and shell casings under the bedroom balcony.  The pistol had been purchased two days earlier and was not registered to Arango.  Because of this withheld evidence the Florida Supreme Court vacated his conviction and Arango was released in 1986.  (FJDB) (Arango v. State)  [7/07]

Maharaj was sentenced to death for the murders of Derrick Moo Young, 53, and his son, Duane, 23.  The victims, both Jamaicans, had been fatally shot in a room at the Dupont Plaza Hotel.  Maharaj, a Trinidad born British national, owned and operated the Caribbean Times, a newspaper which catered to the West Indian community.  Maharaj has six alibi witnesses that can testify that at the time of the killings, he was 30 miles away at a Fort Lauderdale business meeting.  An investigator working for the defence claims that Maharaj’s lawyer was threatened just before the trial – at which he called none of the witnesses.  All six alibi witnesses were willing to testify.

Three days into Maharaj's trial the judge, Howard Gross, was arrested on bribery charges relating to another case and subsequently debarred.  Maharaj's lawyer failed to demand a new trial.  Maharaj claims that the same judge tried to solicit a $50,000 bribe from him before his trial got underway - via an Assistant State Attorney sent to see him in jail (whose visit to Maharaj is noted in the records).

The victims were portrayed in court as an honest, retired businessman and his son. Derrick, the father, was shown as having a $20,000 dollar annual income. What the jury never heard about was that he and his son had just taken out $1 million life insurance policies - and documents in their briefcase mentioned loans of up to $5 million.  An Ernst & Young account manager who examined their documents concluded the victims were either selling drugs or planning to launder money.

Neville Butler, the prosecution's only eyewitness who claimed to have seen Maharaj commit the murders, failed part of his lie detector test - and then went on to change his version of the events about who booked the hotel room. By contrast, Maharaj passed his polygraph with flying colors and has never deviated from his original account.

Butler was seen right after the murders in the back of a car in Miami.  He had blood on his own shirt – and looked like he has been in a scuffle.  He told those with him in the car that: “They went crazy and started shooting.” This statement contradicts the prosecution theory that there was one killer, Maharaj, who acted alone. In the hours after the murder Butler never mentioned Maharaj’s name to those he was with, and was also told by another man present to “get his story straight” before calling the police.

In 2002, Maharaj's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.  The UK Government has supported calls for a retrial of Maharaj on grounds that it was not informed that Maharaj, a British national, was facing capital charges and thus was unable to provide assistance, a violation of U.S. treaty obligations and international law.  (www.krishnamaharaj.org)  [6/08]

James Joseph Richardson, a farm worker, was convicted of murdering seven of his children by poisoning them with the pesticide parathion.  He was sentenced to death.  The prosecution claimed that Richardson had purchased life insurance policies on his children the evening before their deaths.  Police officers testified that they found a sack of parathion in Richardson's shed.  Additionally two jailhouse informants testified that they heard Richardson incriminate himself.

Following the conviction, a defense investigation revealed that Richardson never bought life insurance for his children.  Three police searches of his home and shed turned up no evidence of parathion.  However, a neighbor, Betsy Reese “found” parathion in Richardson’s shed following the police searches.  On the day of the children’s deaths, Betsy Reese babysat Richardson’s younger non-school age children, and had fed his older children when they stopped home from school to eat lunch.

Richardson and his wife had prepared breakfast for the children that morning and both left for work before the children got up.  They picked fruit miles away and did not have their own transportation.  Parathion was found on the breakfast plates and in the grits pot used to serve breakfast.  However, none of the children showed signs of poisoning until immediately after they returned to school following lunch.

The babysitter, Betsy Reese, had been convicted of murdering her first husband, apparently due to jealousy.  She was suspected of poisoning her second husband.   After a visit by Richardson’s sister-in-law, Reese’s third husband accompanied the sister-in-law on her return home to Jacksonville.  When he did not return, Reese, who lived next door, was apparently upset and stopped visiting the Richardsons.  Reese resumed her visits just days before the children’s deaths.

Years later while Reese was living in a nursing home, she confessed to killing the children, but the prosecution discounted her confession as due to her senility.  The state’s case file wound up in independent hands after being stolen by a man who was dating the prosecutor's secretary.  The file revealed extensive exculpatory evidence that was withheld from the defense.  In response, the Dade County State Attorney, Janet Reno, was named special prosecutor to examine the case.  Based on her conclusions that a grave injustice had been done, charges were dropped against Richardson and he was released in 1989.  The case is the subject of a book, Arcadia by Mark Lane.  (PC) (FLCC)  [12/06]

William Troop, Howard Shaffer and Charles Stevens were convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Mary McMillan.  The victim’s husband, Malcolm McMillan, 65, lived with his wife Mary, 60, in a rural cottage on Superior Street, west of Jacksonville.  He said three men attacked him and his wife with an ax.  He managed to escape, but his wife died.  Initially, he said the men were white and did not mention them having masks.  However, following the convictions, in retelling his tale, he changed details, saying the men were masked, then said they were foreigners who talked funny.  Later he said they were black.  McMillan had also been known to beat his wife from time to time.

Because of doubts raised by McMillan, a judge ordered a new trial.  The retrial led to the same result as the first trial.  The Florida Supreme Court then sent the case back for a third trial.  The defense attorneys moved to dismiss the case.  The judge agreed, citing the absence of any motive and the contradictory statements of McMillan.  The Duval Three were released in 1930.  The murder of Mary McMillan has never been solved.  (FL Times-Union)

Jones, a black man, was convicted of the sniper killing of white police officer Thomas Szafranski, 28, and sentenced to death.  The main witness against Jones later recanted.  Two key officers in the case had left the Jacksonville Police Department under a cloud, and allegations that one of them beat Jones before he supposedly confessed had gained credence.

A retired police officer, Cleveland Smith, came forward and said Officer Lynwood Mundy had bragged that he beat Jones after his arrest. Smith, who described Mundy as an "enforcer," testified that he once watched Mundy get a confession from a suspect by squeezing the suspect's genitals in a vise grip. He said Mundy unabashedly described beating Jones.  Smith waited until his 1997 retirement to come forward because he wanted to secure his pension.

More than a dozen people had implicated another man as the killer, saying they either saw him carrying a rifle as he ran from the crime scene or heard him brag he had shot the officer.  Even Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw, who formerly headed a division of the state attorney's office, wrote that Jones' case had become "a horse of a different color."  Newly discovered evidence, Shaw wrote, "casts serious doubt on Jones' guilt."  Shaw and one other judge voted to grant Jones a new trial.  But a five-judge majority ruled against Jones.  Jones was executed one week later in the electric chair on March 24, 1998.  (DPI)  [11/05]

Wilbert Lee and Freddie Pitts, both blacks, were convicted of the robbery and murders of two white gas station attendants.  While no physical evidence linked them to the deaths, the prosecution used their own confessions, which were beaten out of them, and they also used the testimony of an alleged eyewitness.  The defendants also suffered from having incompetent defense counsel.

A few weeks after they were sentenced to death, a white man, Curtis "Boo" Adams Jr., was arrested for killing a Fort Lauderdale gas station attendant during a robbery.  Adams subsequently confessed to the murders for which Lee and Pitts were convicted.  When he learned of this confession, the local sheriff, Byrd Parker, wanted nothing to do with it, saying, "I already got two niggers waiting for the chair in Raiford for those murders."  A polygraph examiner who had heard Adams confess took the matter to the press, and soon a new trial was ordered, at which Lee and Pitts were again convicted.

Some time after the second conviction, the alleged eyewitness recanted her testimony and the state attorney general admitted that the state had unlawfully suppressed evidence.  The defendants were released in 1975 when they received a full pardon from Governor Askew, who stated he was "sufficiently convinced that they were innocent."  The ordeal of Lee and Pitts is detailed in the book Invitation to a Lynching by Gene Miller.  In 1998, the Florida Legislature awarded the defendants $500,000 each in compensation.  (FLCC) (Time)  [7/05]

Kelley was convicted of the murder of Charles Von Maxcy and is awaiting execution.  In 1967, a jury convicted Boston mobster John Sweet, the secret lover of Maxcy's wife, Irene, for the murder after Irene testified against him.  However, Sweet was released from prison a year later after Irene admitted having an affair with the lead detective in the case.

By 1981, Sweet was facing a hefty prison time for running theft and fraud rings in Massachusetts.  To save himself, he offered to name the hit men in the Von Maxcy murder in exchange for immunity.  One was dead; the other, he said, was Kelley.  At Kelley's second trial -- the first ended in mistrial -- the prosecutor falsely informed the jury that Sweet had nothing to gain by his testimony.  In 2002, a U.S. district court overturned Kelley's conviction.  Kelley could not be retried because Sweet had died in 1989.  However, a U.S. circuit court reinstated the conviction.  A petition to overturn the circuit court's ruling was sent to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2005.  (Miami Herald) (Boston Globe) (Oranous)  [7/05]

After Thomas Revels, an off-duty deputy sheriff, was murdered during a robbery of Luke’s Grocery store, Tallahassee police charged five black men from Quincy, Florida with the crime.  One of these men, David Keaton, was an 18-year-old star football player with plans to enter the ministry.  Although he had an alibi, Keaton was held in custody for more than a week.  During that time he maintained he had been threatened, lied to, and beaten until he confessed.  He believed that despite his confession, no jury would convict him when they heard his alibi.  He was wrong.  At trial his coerced confession was buttressed by the false testimony of five eyewitnesses.  Keaton was convicted and sentenced to death.  In his confession Keaton implicated Johnnie Frederick, who was “clean as a whistle,” in the belief that a judge and jury would see that his confession was false.  Frederick was convicted as well and sentenced to life in prison.

David Charles Smith and two other Quincy defendants still awaited trial.  In the meantime, a witness arose, Benjamin Franklin Pye, who knew the actual men who committed the crime.  The men were from Jacksonville, not Quincy, though Pye knew only their street names.  But he knew the motel where they had stayed, the dates, and the rental car they drove.  He was with them when they cased Luke's to rob it later.  Pye gave this information to his attorney, who in turn relayed it to Smith’s attorney, Will Varn.  Varn was a former U.S. attorney, and he was able to get funds from the judge to hire an investigator who came up with names to fit Pye’s story.  The names also fit the crime scene fingerprints that had not matched any of the Quincy Five.  The three Jacksonville men were tried and convicted.

Despite the new evidence, the state continued to insist the Quincy Five were guilty as well.  When Smith came to trial, five white eyewitnesses swore he was guilty.  But Varn had the conflicting fingerprints and convictions, Pye's testimony, and a good alibi for Smith.  An all-white jury acquitted him.  The Florida Supreme Court took note and ordered new trials for Keaton and Frederick.  The prosecution soon dropped charges against Keaton and Frederick, as well as against the remaining two Quincy defendants.  Keaton and Frederick were released in 1973.  (SP Times) (TWM) (FLCC)  [3/07]

Bosquete was convicted of rape.  The victim was raped in her apartment and said her assailant was a Latino who wore no shirt and had no hair.  Shortly after the incident, an officer stopped several Cuban-American men in a convenience store parking lot. Only Bosquete had no shirt and no hair.  The victim identified Bosquete as her assailant from 20 feet away as he was in a police car.  Bosquete had a large, black moustache that the victim then added to her description of her assailant.

Bosquete had come to the U.S. as part of the 1980 Mariel boatlift.  Bosquete escaped from prison in 1985, but was arrested 10 years later.  Three months later, he escaped again, but was arrested again after a year.  DNA tests proved him innocent in 2006, and the prosecutor has apologized.  Nevertheless, upon release from prison, he was rearrested by immigration because while he was on the run, he failed to register and pursue citizenship.  A judge will decide whether he can be deported.  (AP News) (IP)

Gilbert Stokes was convicted of murdering 18-year-old Jyron Seider during the robbery of a Belle Glade, Florida street dice game.  Stokes was a member of the “Dogs Under Fire” gang while Seider was not.  An appeals court overturned Stokes’ conviction because the prosecutor repeatedly tried to create the impression that Stokes was motivated to kill Seider because he was a non-gang member.  No evidence supported that assertion and it was clear that Stokes socialized with non-gang members.  The court stated, “Here, the State lacked strong evidence and it is questionable, under the facts of this case, whether the jury would have found Stokes guilty without hearing evidence of his DUF membership.”  The appeals court also overturned the conviction because the trial judge improperly allowed a detective to give hearsay testimony that alleged witnesses who did not come to court to testify had implicated Stokes in the murder.

DNA evidence and two eyewitnesses link the state’s star witness to the murder.  The two witnesses say that Stokes was not involved.  As of Dec. 2005, Stokes remains imprisoned while the prosecution decides whether to retry him.  (JD30 p14)  [2/07]

Half-brothers, William Riley Jent and Earnest Lee Miller were sentenced to death for the rape and murder of 20-year-old Linda Gale Bradshaw.  Her body was found in Richloam Game Preserve on July 14, 1979.  She had been burned to death and her body was not identified.  Two women with whom Jent and Miller had been drinking testified against them.  Years later one stated that she had testified about "facts" she saw in a drug-induced dream.  The other said she felt pressured by police to go along with her friend's story.

A re-examination of the autopsy report demonstrated that the crime never took place the way the eyewitnesses described it.  After the victim was identified in 1986, the time of the murder was established, and it was discovered that Jent and Miller had airtight alibis.  The victim’s boyfriend, Charles Robert "Bobby" Dodd, Jr., had moved away immediately after her murder.  Four months later, Dodd's new girlfriend was also found burned to death.  Prosecutors allowed the men to go free in 1988 in exchange for them pleading guilty to lesser offenses and receiving time served sentences.  In 1991, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Department paid the men $65,000 to settle civil rights claims. (NL)  [11/05]

Samuel Jason Derrick was sentenced to death for the murder of Rama Sharma.  Sharma, 55, owned the Moon Lake General Store and was found dead behind the store.  Following the murder, police received a tip that a car was seen driving suspiciously around the crime scene vicinity in the early morning hours of June 25, 1987, prior to the finding of the victim's body.  The description of the car, including a partial license plate number, seemed to match that of a car driven by David Lowry.  Lowry deflected the investigation away from himself by implicating Derrick, who was then his friend.  At trial, five Pasco County detectives swore under oath that Derrick confessed to the crime.  There was no written, audio, or video record of this "confession" or any interrogation notes written by any of the five detectives.  The Pasco County Sheriff's Office had a reputation for corruption.  Just two years earlier, St. Petersburg Times reporter Lucy Morgan won a Pulitzer Prize for her series of articles documenting this corruption.

The prosecution case contained numerous inconsistencies:  (1) Lowry testified that he saw Derrick with a double-edged knife on the evening of June 24.  This was shortly before the murder according to the prosecution theory.  However, the medical examiner determined that the victim's stab wounds were made with a single-edged knife.  (2) Detectives testified that Derrick confessed to stabbing the victim 13 times.  However, the medical examiner determined that the victim was stabbed 33 times.  (3) Detectives testified that Derrick admitted committing the crime at 10:30 p.m. on June 24, 1987.  However, the medical examiner testified that the time of death was 6:00 a.m. the following morning.  (4) Detectives testified that Derrick said he threw the murder knife in the woods, and his bloody shirt and shoes in a pond.  However, they never located this evidence or any other physical evidence linking Derrick to the crime.

Prosecutor Michael Halkitis repeatedly discredited the testimony of his own witness, that of Medical Examiner Edward Corcoran. In his closing arguments, he informed the jury that Mr. Corcoran was mistaken about the time of death.  Other evidence supports Derrick's claim of innocence.  A witness, Shannon Loyce, testified that she saw Sharma alive between 2:15 and 2:30 a.m. on June 25, 1987.  A trial juror, Nancy Rocco, sent a letter to the St. Petersburg Press, and subsequently signed an affidavit stating that she "now knows the state did not prove its case."  In 2002, another man had made statements implicating himself in Sharma's murder.  (www.savejasonderrick.org) (SP Times)  [4/08]

George Allen Lewis was convicted of the rape and murder of a 36-year-old neighbor, Karen Gregory.  Gregory lived at the corner of 27 Ave. and Upton St. in Gulfport, FL.  Around 1 a.m. on May 23, 1984, more than a dozen of Gregory’s neighbors heard a loud piercing scream.  Most paid little attention, but on the morning of the 24th Gregory was found raped and brutally murdered.  When interviewed later, Lewis said that upon hearing the scream he walked towards Gregory’s house to investigate, but turned around after he failed to see anything suspicious.  Lewis was a firefighter and a neighborhood crime watch volunteer.  He had a crime watch sign in his yard.  Lewis had a sterling reputation and was friends with the case investigator, Detective Larry Tosi.

When questioned eight months later, Lewis changed his story, saying he just walked to the front of his house and did not walk along the street.  He was then asked to take a lie detector test, which he failed.  After being told that he failed, he changed his story again.  He also gave slightly different stories after two more lie detector tests.  Two years after the murder, investigator Tosi had a crime scene photo of what appeared to be a bloody (barefoot) footprint enlarged and compared to Lewis’ footprint.  The forensic comparers reported a match.  Lewis then admitted it was his footprint and that he entered Gregory’s house following the murder to investigate, but said he did not murder Gregory.

Gregory’s body was found outside a bathroom.  Lewis’ bloody footprint was found inside the bathroom.  At trial Lewis said that after he entered Gregory’s house and came upon the body, he got sick and entered the bathroom to vomit in the toilet.  Afterwards he ran like a scared rabbit.  He said that later, during the investigation, he tried to be helpful, but thought it best not to mention that he walked through the murder scene.  To construct a motive, the prosecution speculated that routine everyday tensions caused Lewis to snap and commit the brutal rape-murder.  Lewis’ family and fellow firefighters, who presumably know him better, strongly maintain his innocence.

Lewis’ case provides reasonable doubt.  It is plausible to believe that Lewis, as a crime watch volunteer, might have entered Gregory’s house to check that everything was fine.  Also as a firefighter, Lewis was trained to enter houses based on what his senses told him.  If he saw smoke billowing from a house's window, he most likely did not wait for social approval before entering.  His job required him to take charge.

Reportedly, there was broken door glass outside Gregory's home, which might have drawn his attention.  Perhaps he heard the sounds of the victim's last moans or of the killer exiting out the rear.  It is plausible that Lewis inadvertently walked into a pool of the victim’s blood before the true horror of the situation dawned on him. Or not wanting to vomit on the floor, he stepped in the victim’s blood while walking over her body to get to the toilet.  Although the real killer could have left a bloody footprint, he likely fled before most of the victim's blood had drained from her body.  There may not have been any pools of blood for him to step in.

Secondly, Lewis had legitimate reason to fear that reporting the crime would a lead to the murder being pinned on him.  He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  It is in the interest of justice that individuals not incriminate themselves if they are innocent.  In extreme cases, it might even be advisable for an innocent person to clean up a crime scene, or even bury a body. Since Lewis was clearly in a incriminating situation, his failure to report the crime cannot be used as evidence of guilt.

Thirdly, rather than implicate him in the crime, Lewis' false stories tend to exonerate him.  Had he planned the crime beforehand, he likely would have snuck up to the victim's house, worn a disguise, or taken some precaution so that a neighbor could not identify him.  Then when questioned later about the crime, he would deny knowing anything about it.  In actual fact, when questioned, Lewis acknowledged walking along the street to investigate the scream.  His acknowledgment implied that he was fearful that a neighbor might have seen him on the street and he did not want to be caught in a lie by denying everything.  Even that acknowledgement he apparently did not want to make.  After talking to Investigator Tosi, and finding out that no neighbor saw him, he changed his story eight months after the crime to say he only walked to the front of his house.  In addition, it does not seem likely that Lewis would have entered Gregory’s house barefoot if he planned to struggle with her.

Fourthly, there was an alternate suspect who stopped by Gregory’s house a half day after her murder and left a note on the car of Gregory’s absent boyfriend, saying he stopped by, but “saw no signs of life.”  When questioned this suspect had a cut on his hand, but reportedly had an alibi.  Lewis will be eligible for parole in 2010.  A 1992 book was written about the case, entitled Unanswered Cries by Thomas French.  (AJ)  [8/08]

Inmate John Lee Fort confessed on national television to the murder of another inmate and claimed it was a guard-ordered assassination.  Officials blamed Thomas Craig for the murder and kept him in solitary confinement for two years.  At trial, he was acquitted of the murder in 56 minutes and released a few months later.  Officials had reason to blame Craig.  According to Craig, “I was on the burial squad.”  “They would take us out and have us burying these guys who had supposedly died of natural causes.  I managed to get a look into a couple of those coffins -- one had an obvious bullet hole, another’s skull was crushed.”

Another inmate, Bennie Demps, was executed in 2000 despite the existence of a DOC report that seemed to point to his innocence.  There was irrefutable evidence that Martin Anderson, a 14-year-old inmate, was brutally beaten to death.  The state’s medical examiner initially claimed he had died of his sickle cell anemia.  The state of Florida now openly admits that inmate Frank Valdes was killed by out-of-control correctional officers.  (TruthInJustice)  [9/06]