the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered the acquittal of a death row inmate...

the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered the acquittal of a death row inmate, saying prosecutors had not proved he killed 2 neighbors.
John Robert Ballard, 37, has served nearly 3 years for the 1999 murders of his friends Jennifer Jones and Willie Ray Patin Jr., whose skulls were smashed at their apartment.
The only evidence tying Ballard to the crime was a fingerprint on a bed frame and an arm hair found in Jones' hand, the high court said. But the court noted the possibility that Ballard left the fingerprint and hair during one of his many visits.
Jones was a marijuana dealer, and gang members had shot into the apartment a week before the killings, the court said. But prosecutors never presented evidence ruling out the gang members as the killers.
Also, prosecutors believe the killer's motive was robbery - Jones kept large amounts of money in the apartment - but there was no evidence Ballard had such money after the killings, the court said.
Ballard will not be released from death row immediately because prosecutors have 15 days to ask the court to reconsider. Ballard would become the 26th person to be exonerated and released from Florida's death row since 1972.
Abe Bonowitz, director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said: "The important question is this: How many of these cases must be exposed before Governor Jeb Bush admits that the death penalty system in this state is flawed? Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) again demands an immediate "time-out" on executions until the public can be guaranteed that Florida's criminal justice system is both fair and accurate."
FADP's count is 26 exonerees, however the national count maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center does not include William Jent, Ernest Miller, Joe Spaziano and Sonia Jacobs, who were all released from death row with substantial evidence of their innocence. Their convictions were overturned and they reluctantly entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge because of the threat of possibly receiving another death sentence. In all of these cases, FADP believes that no responsible jury would find them guilty. For more information, please see http://www.fadp.org