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New state attorney withdraws request to test evidence in Tommy Zeigler death penalty case

Suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell previously sought fingerprint testing in 1975 Winter Garden murders

Death row inmate William "Tommy” Zeigler, photographed at age 75. (Florida Department of Corrections)

ORLANDO, Fla. – Nine months after former Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell asked a judge for permission to test fingerprint evidence in a 1975 quadruple murder that landed Tommy Zeigler on Florida’s Death Row, Worrell’s successor as state attorney has withdrawn the request.

Zeigler, 78, was sentenced to death for the murders of his wife, in-laws and a customer inside his family’s Winter Garden furniture store.

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Last year, a judge granted a joint motion filed by Worrell and Zeigler’s attorneys that gave Zeigler the ability to conduct DNA tests on dozens of pieces of evidence that have been locked up in storage since his 1976 trial.

That DNA testing, which is still underway at a private lab, is being done entirely at Zeigler’s expense.

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Worrell’s office filed a motion in March seeking to examine decades-old fingerprint evidence in the case at taxpayer expense. 

Worrell’s request marked the first time since Zeigler’s conviction nearly five decades ago that the State of Florida had offered to test evidence in the long-closed murder case, according to Zeigler’s legal team.

“The State Attorney’s commitment to conviction integrity compels her and her Conviction Integrity Unit to perform a holistic review of Mr. Zeigler’s entire case,” Worrell’s spokesperson told News 6 in March. “Such a holistic review includes an evaluation of all the evidence collected, not just the evidence being analyzed for DNA.”

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Worrell’s office said it needed the ability to respond appropriately should the DNA testing results prompt Zeigler to seek future relief in court.

In August, just weeks after prosecutors filed an amended motion related to the Zeigler fingerprint examination, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Worrell from office.

In an executive order, DeSantis outlined numerous reasons why he believed Worrell exhibited incompetence and neglect of duty while serving as state attorney since 2021.

Worrell has asked the Florida Supreme Court to overturn her suspension.

Andrew Bain, who was appointed by the governor to replace Worrell as state attorney, has not attempted to stop Zeigler from testing DNA evidence.

But during a brief status hearing Wednesday, Chief Assistant State Attorney Ryan Williams announced that Bain’s office would be withdrawing the previous administration’s motion for fingerprint testing.

Williams did not explain to Circuit Court Judge Patricia Strowbridge why the state was no longer interested in examining fingerprint evidence in the Zeigler case, which Worrell’s team had previously estimated would cost taxpayers about $2,400.

Although Zeigler’s defense team continues to test DNA evidence, his lawyers have not yet filed any court papers indicating they’ve obtained test results that exonerate Zeigler or establish grounds for a new trial.

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