TESTS ARE BACK, RESULTS ARE NEGATIVE!!!!!
All Inmates Are NOT Liars!

ANOTHER INNOCENT MAN
Paul Hildwin

Paul's recent DNA shows that he did not commit the crimes he is being held for.  I imagine all of you, like myself, wonder why Paul's still sitting in prison?  I'd say it's probably because Florida just released the 24th innocent man, Mr. Rudolph Holton from imminent murder by state... And Florida just murdered a probably innocent man, Mr. Amos King. I'm positive Florida would have a heck of a problem maintaining their death fests when the 25th innocent shows up just a few weeks later! Jeb would have to call a halt to all state sanctioned murders until he cleaned up the process or admit he's just another murderer of innocent people! I would be willing to bet the process for innocents in prison to prove themselves will be made much more difficult very quickly. The proposed rule change banning inmates from websites, if allowed to pass, will definately help Florida bury their innocents behind the walls.

"Paul's been living on death row for 18 years and his recently administered DNA tests came back negative, meaning he did not commit the rape/murder he has been locked up for.  HE IS ANOTHER INNOCENT MAN who's been living on Florida's Death Row. Less than two weeks after Rudolph Holton was released innocent, here's another one.  Jeb Bush can't possibly kill another one.  He'll have to do 'like Gov. Ryan did in Il or he's going to look awful bad." 'bea' 

2-6-08

Dear Kay, hello!  I just got your note!  Thank you for writing!  To answer your question about the DNA in my case:  Yes, I had the DNA done and it has excluded me as a suspect!  I've been on the row going on 18 years! Let's hope I'm the 25th person [to be released from Florida's Death Row]- the state is fighting me hard on it. I expected as much!

I've heard that there has been a lot on the net about it.  Come across any articles about me, would you send me copies? Do you know any good reporters?  I looking for some good ones.  The more press coverage the faster I may get out of here.

I have proclaimed my innocence since day one.  It;s taken me this long to get to this point.  I want out NOW!!!!

With that, I'll close and say, take care.

Love,
Paul

Feb 22, 2003

Part of Paul's charges were rape so they also tested semen and those results are negative also.  Paul said he thinks he will go back to court about April.

I called David Menschel at the Innocence Project for Paul yesterday.  He said that after next Wed. he will call Paul.  David said Paul is looking good.    I will try to go see him in March for his birthday.  I was so excited when Paul called me last week.  It was the second personal call he's had in about l8 years -- I told him I would try to go to court for him a few days when he goes.

4 February  2003

P R E S S   R E L E A S E
from
F L O R I D I A N S   FOR   A L T E R N A T I V E S
TO   THE   DEATH   PENALTY   (FADP)

4 February  2003

FADP CONTACT: Abe Bonowitz: 800-973-6548

LEGAL CONTACT:  Mark Gruber:  800-500-5143, ext. 103
PLEASE NOTE:  Mark Gruber and CCRC are NOT affiliated with FADP.


DNA EXONERATION LEADS TO MORE "WASHING OF THE HANDS..."
"Paul Hildwin did not commit this crime and should be freed immediately."

At what was expected to be a routine status hearing before Hernando County Circuit Judge Richard Tombrink this morning, lawyers for Florida death row inmate Paul Christopher Hildwin revealed that DNA test results received last week exclude Mr. Hildwin as the depositor of sperm in the brutal 1986 rape and murder of Vronzettie Cox.  With the State's "single-killer" theory in the case debunked, Capital Collateral Regional Counsel attorney Mark Gruber asked Judge Tombrink to immediately order the release of Mr. Hildwin.  Tombrink declined to act affirmatively, instead ordering new motions which will result in a thorough review of all evidence in the case.

"Judge Tombrink stated that either side would appeal any ruling he made today," said Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, "So he effectively washed his hands of the matter and punted to the Florida Supreme Court.  DNA testing proves that Paul Hildwin did not commit this murder.  There is no reason for him to spend another day on Florida's death row.  Paul Hildwin did not commit this crime and should be freed immediately."

The state contends that during a one hour period, Mr. Hildwin raped and
murdered Ms. Cox, drove 16 miles round trip to a bank to forge a check from her checkbook, hid the car in woods 1.5 miles from his home and returned to his own car approximately  7 miles away on foot.  The other possible suspect in this case was discounted, despite the fact that he was the victim's boyfriend, that he had a history of arguing with her, and that he failed to report her as missing until four days after the murder when the victim's relatives asked about her. 

Further details of the Hildwin case will be available on the web page of FADP (http://www.fadp.org)

http://www.fadp.org/pressconfjan2003.html

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FLA - Attorneys: New DNA evidence should free death row inmate
Wednesday, February 04, 2003 1:52 PM
From: Rick Halperin

FLORIDA:

Attorneys for death row inmate Paul C. Hildwin told a judge Tuesday that new DNA evidence should wipe out his conviction for a 1985 Hernando County slaying.

Hildwin's attorneys said body fluids found in the victim's car don't match their client's DNA, but a prosecutor said a mountain of other evidence still supports his conviction and warrants his execution.

Circuit Judge Richard Tombrink Jr. agreed, saying: "I don't think it's as clear cut as the defense would have it."

He asked for a written report from Hildwin's lawyers laying out their new evidence, after which he would likely order a hearing. Attorneys said it could be months before the hearing takes place. Just last month, a Florida death row inmate was freed after 17 years when DNA testing showed that key evidence in his case did not come from him.

Hildwin, 42, was sentenced to die for killing 42-year-old Vronzettie Cox, whose nude body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car parked in some Hernando County woods in September 1985. She had been strangled with a T-shirt.

At issue is DNA extracted recently from fluids on panties and a washcloth found in a laundry bag in Cox's car. Prosecutors at the 1986 trial used them as part of their circumstantial case against Hildwin because the fluids - semen and saliva - matched his blood characteristics.

But DNA tests received from a Maryland laboratory last week show that the fluids were not Hildwin's.

Attorney Mark Gruber told Tombrink that because prosecutors relied heavily on the evidence to convince the jury of Hildwin's guilt, then the conviction should be tossed out and a new trial ordered.

"There is simply no way the conviction can stand and Hildwin can be executed," said Gruber, who works for the Capital Collateral Representative, a state-funded agency that mounts appeals for condemned inmates.

Hildwin was linked to the murder after he cashed a forged check of Cox's and had her ring and her radio when deputies searched his house. A witness testified that Hildwin was driving Cox's car when he cashed the check at a Brooksville bank, and her purse was found in the woods behind his house.

"There is a lot of other evidence that pointed to Mr. Hildwin," prosecutor Rock Hooker said.

Court records said the night before the slaying, Hildwin, his girlfriend and another couple had gone to a drive-in movie, spent all their money and ran out of gas on the way home.

After sleeping in the car, Hildwin left early in the morning, hitched a ride with Cox and returned shortly afterward with cash and her ring, which he said he found in the garbage.

Cox's boyfriend, William Haverty, said she had gone to a coin laundry to wash clothes near where Hildwin's car ran out of gas, court records said.

At trial, Hildwin testified that he had been with Cox and Haverty while they were arguing. He said he left when Haverty began choking her, stealing the checkbook, ring and radio.

The semen and saliva taken from the items in the Cox's laundry did not match Haverty's blood characteristics, so they wouldn't match his DNA, either, Gruber said. Haverty is currently serving a prison sentence on a series of 1998 child sexual battery convictions.

Hildwin's first death sentence was overturned in 1995 when the court found that his trial attorney failed to present mitigating evidence at his sentencing hearing. He was sentenced to death again following a second hearing in 1996. The Florida Supreme Court has affirmed his conviction.

Death row inmate Rudolph Holton was freed Jan. 24 after DNA tests disproved some evidence and prosecutors determined they didn't have enough other evidence to retry him for the 1986 murder of a Tampa teen.

(source: Associated Press)