Zeigler v. State, 84066

• Decision Date: 13 April 1995
• Docket Number: No. 84066,84066
• Citation: Zeigler v. State, 654 So.2d 1162 (Fla. 1995)
• Parties: 20 Fla. L. Weekly S167 William Thomas ZEIGLER, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 1162

654 So.2d 1162

20 Fla. L. Weekly S167

William Thomas ZEIGLER, Jr., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 84066.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 13, 1995.

Rehearing Denied May 23, 1995.

Dennis H. Tracey, III and John Houston Pope, Davis, Scott, Weber & Edwards, P.C., New York City, for appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., and Kenneth S. Nunnelley, Asst. Atty. Gen., Daytona Beach, for appellee.

PER CURIAM.

William Thomas Zeigler, Jr., a prisoner under two sentences of death, appeals the trial court's denial of postconviction relief. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, Sec. 3(b)(1), Fla. Const.; Fla.R.Crim.P. 3.850.

In 1976, Zeigler was convicted of the first-degree murders of Eunice Zeigler, his wife, and Charlie Mays, a friend, and the second-degree murders of his in-laws, Perry and Virginia Edwards. The trial judge overrode the jury's recommendation of life imprisonment and imposed two death sentences. The facts of the murders are set out in Zeigler v. State, 402 So.2d 365 (Fla.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1035, 102 S.Ct. 1739, 72 L.Ed.2d 153 (1982), in which we affirmed Zeigler's convictions and sentences of death.

Zeigler subsequently pursued postconviction relief. See Zeigler v. State, 452 So.2d 537 (Fla.1984) (remanded for an evidentiary hearing on claim of judicial bias); Zeigler v. State, 473 So.2d 203 (Fla.1985) (affirmed trial court's denial of judicial bias claim); State v. Zeigler, 494 So.2d 957 (Fla.1986) (reversed trial court's order which had granted an evidentiary hearing on claim that the trial judge did not consider nonstatutory mitigating circumstances). Zeigler then petitioned this Court for habeas corpus relief. We ordered resentencing, holding that the trial judge did not realize that the nonstatutory mitigating evidence was pertinent. Zeigler v. Dugger, 524 So.2d 419 (Fla.1988).

Resentencing occurred in August of 1989. The trial court (presided over by a different judge because the original trial judge was unavailable) again overrode the jury's recommendation of life and imposed two death sentences. We affirmed the sentences on appeal. Zeigler v. State, 580 So.2d 127 (Fla.1991), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 946, 112 S.Ct. 390, 116 L.Ed.2d 340 (1991). Thereafter, we affirmed the denial of a postconviction motion which had been pending during resentencing. Zeigler v. State, 632 So.2d 48 (Fla.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 104, 130 L.Ed.2d 52 (1994). This motion only addressed issues arising out of the conviction phase.

Zeigler then filed the instant postconviction motion seeking to vacate the death sentences imposed on resentencing. The motion raised the following issues: (1) Zeigler was improperly precluded at the resentencing hearing from introducing evidence that was relevant to the mitigating and aggravating factors; (2) this Court failed to consider residual doubt; (3) the resentencing court's override of the jury recommendation of life was unconstitutional; (4) this Court failed to conduct a meaningful appellate review of the jury override; (5) this Court failed to conduct a proportionality review; (6) the "previous conviction of a violent felony" aggravator is vague and was inconsistently applied; (7) there was insufficient evidence to support the "avoiding lawful arrest" aggravator; (8) the "pecuniary gain" aggravator unconstitutionally doubles the factor "avoiding arrest"; (9) the "heinous, atrocious and cruel" aggravator was not limited and was applied inconsistently and arbitrarily; (10) actual innocence; and (11) Florida's system of capital punishment is unconstitutional. The 3.850 motion included a footnote which purported to reserve the right to file a subsequent postconviction claim based on ineffective assistance of counsel at resentencing because the current postconviction counsel was also Zeigler's counsel at resentencing.

At the hearing on the 3.850 motion, Zeigler also filed a motion for release of evidence and appointment of an expert, which requested that the bloodstain evidence introduced at his trial be re-examined utilizing modern DNA testing procedures. The motion asserted that Zeigler was deprived of a meaningful opportunity to analyze the State's forensic evidence under the forensic technology available in 1976, due, in part, to the State's failure to subtype the bloodstain evidence. Because three of the victims, Charles Mays, Eunice Zeigler, and Perry Edwards, shared the same blood type, Zeigler argued that DNA testing methods currently available may establish that the bloodstains on May's clothing were from Eunice Zeigler or Edwards. Zeigler contended that such evidence would corroborate his trial testimony that Eunice Zeigler and Edwards were murdered during the course of a robbery committed by Mays and others and rebut the State's theory regarding the murders. Zeigler further argued that DNA testing may rebut the State's hypothesis that the type "A" bloodstains found on Zeigler's clothing originated from a struggle with Mays or Edwards.

The trial court denied the 3.850 motion, holding that all of Zeigler's claims were either inappropriate or were or should have been raised on direct appeal. Noting that DNA typing was recognized in this state as a valid test in 1988 in Andrews v. State, 533 So.2d 841 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988), review denied, 542 So.2d 1332 (Fla.1989), the court ruled that Zeigler's motion for DNA testing was time barred because Zeigler failed to request DNA testing in his postconviction motion pending in 1991. The court also determined that Zeigler's attempt to reserve the right to file a future postconviction motion alleging ineffective assistance of counsel was improper and held that it would not...