A quest for innocence, a race against time

By Jean Gonzalez - Florida Catholic - Orlando

STARKE | The noise on death row can be constant. Alarms ringing. Commands over loudspeakers. Squawking from walkie-talkies. A grinding sound as heavy, steel prison doors roll open and shut; prisoners mopping floors, bringing in large meal carts or laundry carts. 

The sounds all add to the regimented, claustrophobic atmosphere of death row. 

After visitors check in with personnel behind bullet-proof glass, they enter a holding area where death row inmates and their lawyers can chat privately, and where journalists can conduct interviews. 

William Thomas Zeigler Jr. is familiar with the area because death row has been his home since 1976. He’s had his share of conversations with lawyers there and his share of media interviews. That would include interviews with the Florida Catholic. (See PDFs of past articles at this link.)

Despite having roots in sleepy Winter Garden in the mid-1970s, his case has drawn national and international attention. Journalists of major news outlets, private investigators and documentarians have researched the original trial case for decades. The case and trial are fraught with questionable witness accounts, hidden evidence never brought to light, jury and judicial misconduct, set in a small southern town with a history of the Ku Klux Klan and racial injustice. A few months before the murders, Zeigler was supporting a black store owner who had to go to court to obtain a liquor license. On the opposite side of that case was the man who would sentence Zeigler to death.

Appeal after appeal on the case has also drawn attention. With the advent of DNA testing, Zeigler’s appeals attorneys — who are based out of New York City and offer their services pro bono — have fought the courts tooth and nail to have evidence tested for proof of innocence. They were successful in 2001, when one judge granted limited testing on an area of a blood-soaked shirt that original trial prosecutors said should be the blood of victim Perry Edwards. 

In 2004, DNA testing deemed the blood on the shirt was not that of Edwards — which discounted the entire original prosecution theory. Yet the judge who looked at those findings (a different judge than the one who ordered the testing) said the findings were not enough for a new trial. So Zeigler’s attorneys pressed over and over for more testing using more advanced DNA techniques — always on the defense’s dime and not to be paid by the state. But in 2016 the same judge who rejected the first set of testing results said no amount of DNA testing would warrant a new trial.

Still, the lawyers never stopped, and Zeigler never lost faith. In 2021 came a major break. Ninth Judicial State Attorney Monique H. Worrell, who represents Orange and Osceola counties, agreed to support further DNA testing. In recent months, the DNA testing news has gotten better. Testing won’t just be on a few pieces of clothing, but on all evidence from the crime scene, including some never seen before.

As he sat behind a table, his handcuffed hands in his lap as instructed by guards, Zeigler flashed a smile when asked about testing. Evidence was sent to the labs and results should be ready this summer. His mood, as it has been with each stage of testing, is positive. He was asked how he has stayed on death row for so long and not succumbed to negative thoughts.

“To tell you the truth, you don’t have to think. The truth is there. You just have to tell it,” he said. “The issues we have brought before the court are issues that are sound. I always thought I was going to win. The lawyers I got are solid lawyers.”

While upbeat, honest and friendly, there is no disguising that 46 years on death row have taken a toll. Health problems, including heart issues and a battle with COVID-19, have left Zeigler thin and gaunt. Those are issues that could sideline any 77-year-old, even more a man who spends the majority of his life in a 6 x 9 x 9.5-foot cell.    

No doubt his lawyers and supporters across the globe are on Zeigler’s side. But time is not. Unlike CSI the television show, testing takes months, sometimes years. The same is true when pursuing justice.

But Zeigler’s resolve doesn’t waver. He believes he will become a free man.

WHAT HAPPENED

Zeigler’s world turned upside down on Christmas Eve 1975. He went to his family’s furniture store that evening to meet up with his wife, Eunice. She went to the store earlier that evening with her parents, Virginia and Perry Edwards, to help the older couple pick out a chair as a Christmas gift.

In his own words, he went into the store from the hallway near the back parking lot. The lights were off and didn’t turn on, but that didn’t surprise him because there was a worker — Curtis Dunaway — who would often hit a breaker by accident when turning the lights off. 

He walked towards the back showroom and, as he puts it, that’s when “all thunder and hell broke loose.”  

“I was hit over the back of the head and knocked down, and I was picked up and thrown around like a rag doll,” he said in his southern drawl. “Back in those days I was 165 pounds. It was a big man who was throwing me around.”

Then he was shot, and he let out a laugh when he was asked if he remembers what it felt like. “It felt like a hot poker was jabbed through my stomach.” 

When he regained consciousness, he searched for his glasses, crawled to find a phone and called a friend for help. Police arrived before the ambulance and the seriously injured man was sent to the hospital.

Zeigler never saw the dead bodies of his loved ones and acquaintance. He was unaware of what happened to them until he was arrested for their murders as he lay on his hospital bed days later.

He was resolute on his innocence and had no doubt the trial would cement it.

“I hadn’t done anything, and I had always been taught that the police were correct, the courts were correct, and I wouldn’t have any problem that things would work out,” Zeigler said. “(The verdict) was a shock of a lifetime.”  

During the trial, his jurors were deadlocked six to six, innocent versus guilty, for days. In the years following the trial, jurors have spoken with journalists about the tense and at times abusive atmosphere in the jury room. The judge, Maurice Paul, ordered Valium for jurors who did not side with a guilty verdict. In a news report by the Tampa Bay Times, one juror recounted how at that moment he was sure there would be a mistrial.

But there was no mistrial. There was a guilty verdict and a recommendation of life in prison which was later overturned by Judge Paul to a sentence of death. 

AN APPEAL FOR DNA

Zeigler has been in the death house — the area where prisoners stay before being executed — twice. He was scheduled to be executed in October 1982, but the U.S. District Court in Jacksonville stayed the execution due to new evidence. The next date was May 1986, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal stayed that execution. 

No execution order has been signed since then, and his case continues through the appeals process, which first began with his trial lawyers. But for more than two decades, Dennis Tracey, an attorney from a law firm based in New York City, heads a legal team that has navigated every which way to convince the courts that Zeigler deserves a new trial where he can present both DNA findings and evidence that has emerged after the original trial. 

Terry Hadley served as one of Zeigler’s trial attorneys. He was the first person the Florida Catholic interviewed about the case in 1999. He recalled the trial with clarity then, and still does 24 years later. He has never given up on the case, and he works with Tracey when needed.

More importantly, he is a stalwart and vocal supporter of Zeigler who has spoken with members of the legal teams of some of Florida’s governors. 

Locally, he has continually advocated for DNA testing of evidence with each lead prosecutor at the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s office. Most state attorneys fought hard against testing, such as Lawson Lamar and Jeff Ashton. 

But Hadley thought there might be a sliver of hope when Aramis Ayala was elected to the position. Ayala tapped one of her attorneys — Monique H. Worrell — to create the office’s first conviction integrity unit. After researching the Zeigler case, Worrell drafted a nine-page report that stated Zeigler’s case warrants DNA testing. But Ayala rejected the recommendation. 

Flash forward to 2020, when Worrell won the election as the Ninth District State Attorney. Zeigler’s lawyers, Hadley and Tracey, wasted no time soliciting Worrell to consider testing, all of which would be paid for by Zeigler’s New York law firm. 

Worrell agreed.

“When she was elected, we had faith. Unlike her predecessor she wanted to get to the truth. ... She took the leap of faith for the truth side, and I have tremendous respect for her for that,” Hadley said of Worrell. “I always said I don’t understand the state fighting on DNA testing at all. A comprehensive look at evidence through DNA would truly show if Tommy were guilty or innocent. And at no cost to the state. It’s a win-win for the state.”

Hadley added that tens of thousands of dollars have already been spent by the appeals lawyers to prove Zeigler’s innocence. Why? Because they, like he, believe he is innocent.

“Dennis Tracey and his team are wonderful lawyers and human beings who care deeply about this case. They are the ones getting this all to happen and writing the checks. They are top-notch professionals who are a credit to the legal profession and to the human race,” Hadley said. “We are trying to keep the state from executing an innocent man, and at this point, time is our enemy. The dream is to see Tommy walk out of that prison. Tommy deserves free air and free time out of that hellhole.”

But getting the go-ahead from Worrell was not the end of the saga. At that point, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody wanted to block the testing. She challenged the agreement in court, but finally dropped it in early February. 

So, for now, the evidence is being tested at Forensic Analytical Crime Laboratory in Hayward, California, a lab certified by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors.

This round of DNA testing is not a Hail Mary at the end of a game. Zeigler has been fighting for testing since 1994. A portion of a shirt he wore that Christmas Eve and a portion of the pant legs of trousers worn by victim Charley Mays were cleared by the courts for DNA testing in 2000. The items were tested in 2002 and showed that Perry Edwards’ blood was not present on Zeigler’s shirt (which completely discounted the prosecution theory of Zeigler having Edwards in a choke hold and beating him to death), and the pant legs did not have Zeigler’s DNA (which again discounts the prosecutorial theory that he fought with Mays and killed him).

Yet, in a hearing in 2004, the prosecution discarded the finding, instead changing original trial theory. Since then, the courts have not been kind in appeals. It would seem no amount of logical testing could convince the court that Zeigler deserved another trial.

It was deny, deny, deny, until Worrell came into the picture. 

“(This is) about somebody that believes in truth. Somebody who’s looking for truth. And that is Mrs. Worrell. I realize there is a lot of people thinks she shouldn’t be doing that. But if you’re going to be a prosecutor, and you’re going to go out and take people’s lives in your hands, you should be looking for the truth,” Zeigler said. “I thank God for her.”

MOVING FORWARD

In recent months, the case has generated two updates. One concerns evidence that the defense never knew existed. After being granted access to DNA testing, Zeigler’s lawyers requested all the evidence be available for testing. To their surprise, the clerk of the courts who pulled the evidence found boxes of materials that the defense had never seen before. As a result, more than 150 pieces of evidence — pieces of clothing, fingernail clippings, bone matter, guns, among other items — will be tested. 

The second update involves Worrell’s decision to examine decades-old fingerprint evidence in Zeigler’s case. Both Hadley and Zeigler welcomed the analysis.

Hadley is still upset at the “botched” analysis done by original crime investigators, who stated not enough fingerprint evidence had been recovered from the guns used in the murders. But Hadley said while a partial print might not be able to point the finger at the suspect who held the gun, analysis of a partial print could be used to exclude suspects, such as Zeigler. 

“Instead Don Frye (the lead detective on the case) ordered the destruction of the prints,” Hadley said. “Who does that in an investigation? That is evidence we could have used to help Tommy and it was destroyed.”

For Zeigler, any movement forward in his case is welcome. When asked what piece of evidence he is especially interested in seeing tested, without pause he stated, “All of it.” 

“I think the DNA testing is going to clear me and I hope that it will give us another individual (who committed the crimes),” Zeigler said. “I’ve got the finest lawyers that anybody can ever have. There is no prisoner on death row in any state that have the lawyers I have.”

He said he’s blessed to have Tracey and the New York team on his side. And when he speaks about Hadley, he describes the 80-year-old as “family.” Zeigler had always stayed in touch with his other original trial attorney, Vernon Davids, until he passed away. 

“Towards the end, he would take one of his letters and write ‘Hi’ and sign it ‘V.D.’ to let me know he was still there and still working,” Zeigler said. 

Since being incarcerated, Zeigler has lost his share of loved ones and friends. He was asked how he copes with grief while behind bars.

“The grieving process is the same as with you or anyone on the outside,” he said. “Being in here doesn’t stop your feelings, the only thing it changes is that you’re in a cage and not walking outside.”

Despite his confidence and positivity, Zeigler cannot escape the reality that his health is precarious and time is his foe. But that will not stop his quest to prove his innocence. He has his share of cheerleaders across the globe, and he spends a lot of his days corresponding with supporters through a jail email system.

But he believes he also has a heavenly supporter — his wife Eunice. They had known each other for about a year and a half before they were married. They were husband and wife for nine years before she was murdered.

When asked whether he believes Eunice would be proud of the way he is fighting, Zeigler nodded his head slowly, softly. His voice came out lower and even slower than before. 

“I know she would be proud of me fighting the way we are fighting. She and I had a very loving and open relationship,” he said. “We had a lot in common from the very beginning. I miss everything about her.”

Editor’s note: The Florida Catholic first began investigating the case of William Thomas Zeigler Jr. in 1999 through the series, “Trail of blood to death row.” Since that time, the Florida Catholic has traveled to Union Correctional in Starke several times to interview Zeigler, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest for the murders of his wife, in-laws and a handyman Christmas Eve 1975. The publication has spoken with lawyers, advocates, investigators and former jurors, and attended hearings in the Orange County courthouse in Orlando as appeals have been processed and heard. While the case has hit judicial hurdle after judicial hurdle, it has moved in a positive direction in the past two years. In the report below and videos offered online, the Florida Catholic once again traveled to Starke to visit the 77-year-old inmate. While he continues to maintain his innocence and is rejuvenated by court-granted DNA testing, time has taken a toll on Zeigler. He hopes this time the testing will give him back his “good name” and get him out of a prison cell, the place he has called home since 1976.