Stop an Unjust Execution!

Judges Should Not Have Grudges!

Sign an Online petition to Florida Governor Charles Crist to commute Zeigler's sentence.

 Click here to read the petition.

Check out Tommy's YouTube Video "You Be the Judge"  

Race Relations Have Always Been Central to this Case:

Was the Ku Klux Klan Involved? Is the Klan Still Involved? Click Here

Black Judge Who Denied Zeigler a New Trial in 2004 Did Not Disclose His Relationship to State Attorney! Click Here

Is This Justice...Or Was It Something Else? 

Would a Judge with a Conflict of Interest Be Allowed to Preside at a Murder Trial? No Problem for Maurice Paul

                 Click to Read Attorney's Memorandum

It has been 32 years since the shooting in Tommy Zeigler's furniture store that left his wife, her parents, and another man dead. Zeigler was shot in the stomach. Zeigler was a business owner and civil rights activist who had recently served as a character witness in the trial of a black friend who owned a bar. The judge (shown here) who sentenced Zeigler to death was a character witness for the man who accused Zeigler's friend of selling drugs. Zeigler believes the accusation against his friend was made by the loan sharks who wanted to take over the bar. Did the prosecutor want to stop the investigation of the loan shark motive for the murders? (Click to read.) Did the judge and the prosecutor have a meeting before the trial during which the judge told the prosecutor that he "would fry the son of a bitch" as the chief deputy of the Orange Co. Sheriff Dept. has written? (Click to read.) Were the murders retaliation for Zeigler's activism? Was the Ku Klux Klan involved? Why didn't the judge recuse himself? Has he been in a position to influence Zeigler's case as a federal judge? Send a letter to government officials and the FBI to urge them to investigate why Zeigler was framed for the murders.  Click here to read about the Ku Klux Klan in Orange County 

For a list of the names and address to contact, click here.

Sign the petition to Governor Christ

DNA Confirms Zeigler Innocent

To read Initial Brief, click here

The prosecution claimed the blood on this tee shirt came from Zeigler's father-in-law. DNA proved that they were wrong. They said the blood on Charlie Mays' pants was his own. DNA proved that they were wrong.  The murderers are still at large.  Read the DNA report.  DNA Doesn't Lie. People do.

The chart above shows the interrelationship among principles in the case. The central figure is Tommy Zeigler. Click hear for a full explanation of the chart.

Prosecution Wants You to Believe that Zeigler is as Dumb as Forrest Gump!

The prosecution wants you to believe that Tommy Zeigler planned the murder of his wife carefully over a period of at least six months. But he must have been another Forrest Gump to have made all the stupid decisions that he would have to have made if their theory is right.  First, they say he acquired two cheap hand guns for the murders so they couldn’t be traced to him. That was in the summer of 1975. But the two guns were bought by Frank Smith,  the son in law of Zeigler’s part time employee, Edward Williams,  who was usually out of work and always in need of money.

Click here to continue reading.

Justice Wells Exemplifies Why the Judicial Fair Play Bill is Needed! "A Judge shall disqualify himself if he has personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts in a case."

Justice Wells was a lawyer in private practice when Zeigler was convicted. As an advisor to the Orange County Sheriff who arrested Zeigler, he had independent knowlege of the case which should have led him to abstain from the decision to deny Zeigler's appeal of DNA evidence. That evidence proved Zeigler did not kill his father-in-law. Instead of abstaining, it appears that Wells was one of the authors of the denial. In arguing against the appeal before the court, the state maliciously made reference to scurrilous rumors that where not part of the trial record in a blatant effort to remind Wells of those rumors. They obviousely succeeded. Was this a violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct?    Read a letter reminding him.

The Judicial Fair Play Bill would make it a crime to participate as Wells did. Click here to read

History of the Tommy Zeigler Case

 In the 1970's, the Orange County, Florida (Orlando) citrus belt attracted large numbers of mostly black migrant fruit pickers. Winter Garden, a town on the banks of Lake Apopka, contiguous to the town of Ocoee on the east was in the heart of citrus country. Ocoee had been the scene of a  race riot in 1920. Many blacks were killed and their homes destroyed.  No blacks lived in the city limits of Ocoee until the eighties and it is reported that, as late as the seventies, a sign at the town’s entrance  read, “N----r, don’t let the sun set on you inside city limits.”  The area was a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activity. Orange County Sheriff, Dave Starr, was known to be a member of the Klan and some officials of Winter Garden were also reported to be members. Dave Starr lived in the tiny town of Oakland, also contiguous to Winter Garden on the opposite side from Ocoee.  Sheriff Starr resigned before the end of his term in the early seventies after more than twenty years as sheriff.
(Click here for a recent article about local police being involved with the Klan)      Even as late as 2004, then Attorney General Charles Crist (now governor) found that police were reluctant to talk about the death of civil rights worker, Harry Moore, because of a fear of retribution. (See the executive summary of his report, page 8.) 

Click here to read further

Tommy Zeigler is shown with Ray McEachern in a photo taken in the death row cafe at Florida's Union Correctional Institute. Ray is a doting grandfather of two toddlers and retired former business owner from Tampa. He is not a lawyer, but decided in 2008 to become Mr. Zeigler's citizen advocate when he realized that the judicial system was not going to give Tommy a new trial despite the overwhelming evi- dence of his innocence. Ray has known about the Zeigler case since the beginning through his brother, Leigh, who was then the undersheriff of Orange County.

Click Here to read a poem

The Ballad of the Death Row Cafe