(AP) . . . (FL death row) Inmate Freed for Insufficient Evidence

[TaleWgnDg]

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(Florida Death Row) Inmate freed for insufficient evidence

(AP) Boston Globe, Saturday, February 25, 2006

RAIFORD, Fla. --A man who served nearly three years on death row for the 1999 murders of two friends was out of prison Saturday, (February 25, 2006,) two days after the state (Florida) Supreme Court ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict him.

John Robert Ballard left Union Correctional Institution during the night with a relative, said Robby Cunningham, spokesman for the Florida Department of Corrections.

Ballard, 37, was convicted of the murders of Jennifer Jones and Willie Ray Patin Jr., who skulls were crushed at their Collier County apartment, even though there was little to connect him to the slayings of his friends.

The (Florida) Supreme Court ordered Ballard acquitted Thursday, overruling the jury's verdict, saying there wasn't sufficient proof.

Ballard's conviction had been based almost entirely on the discovery of one fingerprint on a bed frame and an arm hair in the victims' apartment -- a place Ballard had visited numerous times.

. . . more at http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/25/inmate_freed_for_insufficient_evidence/
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[tularetom]

1. Keerist Nancy Grace will have a shit fit.

Her nostrils will flare clear out past her ears over this one.

[TaleWgnDg]

2. She's such a phony! So much so that her bar license should be

in peril!

[alphafemale]

3. egads! What a mental image!

:rofl:

[niallmac]

4. Yes, I wonder what Nostril Damus will have to say about this and

I ask: Does anyone keep score of these newly discovered wrongly sentenced death row inmates? How many? And just to be non PC and all...was the subject of this article a black man by any chance? Oh I know this country is color blind and justice is equal and fair :sarcasm: but I would like to know how many black people we have sentenced to death in error.

[Judi Lynn]

5. It's a miracle someone actually bothered to investigate the case long

enough to realize the prosecution didn't have a case, REGARDLESS of the verdict.

With reactionaries, nothing matters beyond getting some one to burn for each murder, unless the murder has a racial and/or political enemy as the victem.

It's good to know this man can go home now.

[phusion]

6. Good for him

I hope he can get on with his life. At least it was "only" three years and not 15+ like other cases...

[wakeme2008]

7. Little problem with $$$$$

from CNN

"Jones kept large amounts of money in the apartment -- but there was no evidence Ballard had such money after the killings, the court said."

The two killed were drug dealers and had $$$$ but Jones didn't have any signs of any new money.