Unfortunately: "Another man was wrongfully imprisoned for the crime for nearly 14 years.":
Killer:
Posted on 10/04/2025 6:22:14 AM PDT by TheDon
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The murder of Tina Heins has been solved after more than three decades, State Attorney Melissa Nelson announced Thursday.
Michael Shane Ziegler, a close friend of Heins’ Navy sailor husband, is now charged with the sexual assault and murder of the 20-year-old, who was four months pregnant when she was stabbed 27 times in her Mayport apartment in 1994.
Nelson said Ziegler evaded justice for more than three decades -- allowing another man to be wrongfully imprisoned for the crime for nearly 14 years.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at news4jax.com ...
Yes.
On another note-
I really hope people like Chad Heins (wrongfully imprisoned) get some sort of huge compensation and public statement with his image clearing his name.
Justice isn’t perfect and I’m not bad mouthing the system in this case. Mistakes happen and sometimes the wrong people get locked up (no system is perfect, but we still need a system to pursue justice). He isn’t the first
But when this happens, there needs to be a mechanism to help these people in a HUGE way. It would be interesting to know how these people are helped when released?
Except for people like Sheriffs Grady Judd and Chris Nocco, and maybe Gov DeSantis, Florida is the nation’s playground for psychopaths, pederasts, misfits, predators, grifters, and businesses which, despite the products they claim to sell, are thinly-disguised dispensaries of price gouging and flat out elder abuse. Belongs in the Bible.
Allowing someone else to be tried, much less imprisoned for your crime,should be an automatic death sentence.
In the original prosecution authorities bought false testimonies of two jailhouse snitches with reduced sentences.
Those false testimonies helped fill the gaps in the prosecution’s weak case. The jurors sent an innocent man to prison for 14 years.
A lot of people need to stay up at night thinking about how their good intentions went wrong.
I was an Air Force JAG for 30 years. The first five were spent first prosecuting, than defending, military members in courts martial. It was my firm belief after that that nobody should be allowed to be a chief of military justice without having been an area defense counsel first. serving as Defense counsel scrapes some of the self-righteousness off of young prosecutors.
“In the original prosecution authorities bought false testimonies of two jailhouse snitches with reduced sentences.”
What has happened or will happen to the two snitches then? I would hope they are re-arrested, rhey serve the time they got reduced off their sentences, they serve another 14 years, the amount of time the innocent guy served, plus 5 additional years for perjury.
This should have absolutely never have happened. Evidence was allowed that should not have been allowed. And you can bet defense evidence was not allowed. This is on the DA and the Judge here. They should both be personally sued for this.
How did this guy ever get convicted when the hair on the victim’s body did not match, the skin under the victim’s fingernails did not match, the semen on the bedsheets did not match.....and how did Prosecutors hide the fact that there was a bloody fingerprint on the bathroom fawcet that also did not match? Its prosecutorial misconduct not to have provided the latter to the defense. Somebody needs to be prosecuted for that.
Anyway, NONE of the DNA evidence matched this poor guy and there were no witnesses. How in the hell did he get convicted? All they had was that he was in the apartment passed out drunk.
Yes, he should get a huge compensation award. 13 years behind bars on a false conviction - especially when the state withheld exculpatory evidence - nearly ruined his life...it cost him all of his youth. Hopefully at 30 he can still build a decent life for himself.
Good perspective.
Unfortunately: "Another man was wrongfully imprisoned for the crime for nearly 14 years.":
Killer:
No DNA testing at the time. Once the testing was done in 2007, he was released. (The real perp was just now found.)
Poor fellow is now in the jig for a financial crime he did along with a cellmate he never should have encountered.
This whole case is messed up!
Man exonerated for murder sentenced for tax fraud
Dude entered into a tax fraud scheme defrauding the IRS to pay the child support he wasn't able to provide while he was serving time in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
This is the kind of crap that blackpills me against our entire system of justice.
Oh $hit, I didn’t know the prosecutors office withheld exculpatory evidence.
That makes it really bad. Now it not just a mistake. Don’t know what to call it. But it’s really bad.
I sometimes use these sort of cases as a justification in my mind for why we shouldn’t have a death penalty.
But, I do believe the death penalty is a good thing. The lesson that needs to be learned is that it can only be applied where there is not just “beyond reasonable doubt,” but “any and all doubt.” (Absolute certainty)
Capital punishment not only needs reserved for the most heinous crimes which raping and murdering a 4 month pregnant woman was, especially if pre-meditated. But it also should only be applied where there is 100% certainty. In cases where you have the preponderance of evidence pointing in some direction the death penalty should not be applied, it truly needs to be air-tight.
Also, while some people complain about the long times from conviction to execution, I believe this to be a good thing. Not 20+ years as often is the case today, but at least 5 years or so.
IMHO a “cool off” period and several legal reviews also help ensure someone innocent doesn’t get wrongfully executed. People really are herd animals, group-think is a real thing, political showboating is real as well (the slime-ball Comey’s claim to fame was going after Martha Stewart), and the media impacts things, a lot.
I was stationed on a ship at Mayport and remember this vividly.
I have to agree with that.
False Witness is a major crime at the final judgement.
Navy 34 - USAf 31
Malfeasance.
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