Summary

Zeigler, as you now know was not given a fair trial, and since DNA testing was not available in the '70's he was sentenced to death. Not once, but twice, in two different appeals to court. It seems as if the people who convicted him of this brutal crime are reluctant to follow through with killing him, because he's been on death row for 35 years.(zeigler-article ). They know the trials were not fair and they know there wasn't enough hard evidence to convict him, but of course it happened anyway; so if they really did put him to death and he was found innocent later on they'd have that hanging over their heads. Sentencing an innocent man to death is murder in itself. At least 39 executions are claimed to have been carried out in the U.S. in the face of evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt.^[6]

Check out this page that supports Zeigler's freedom and presses for his release through the support of the people

FOCUS: I believe the author is trying to portray to his audience his opinion of the Ziegler vs. Florida case, and that is that Ziegler is innocent. The way he tells the story is very interesting. He speaks in a non-bias way with all the facts, but he strongly hints his belief in Ziegler's innocence through detailed descriptions of evidence and faults in the case supporting Ziegler. This is the message the author is trying to get across to the reader.

The Zeigler vs Florida trial was not a fair one. The jury had no prior experience in law-and-order and, prosecutors lied and withheld information from Zeigler's lawyers — including the existence of a key witness. One of the female jurors who thought Zeigler innocent was harassed by other jurors into voting guilty. 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. (Zeigler, 15)

Week 1: William Thomas Zeigler

Zeigler has been on death row since 1976, and has been waiting for a fair trial in an independent court where he can prove his innocence. He was wrongly convicted of a quadruple homicide in his hometown, Wintergarden, Florida. All the evidence was ruined by careless police, smoking and messing around on the job before evidence could be gathered and analyzed. So his chances to be proved innocent were little to slim, thus granting him red carpet to death row.