U.S. District Judge Norman Roettger overturned the...

U.S. District Judge Norman Roettger overturned the conviction in the Oct. 3, 1966, murder of Sebring millionaire Charles Von Maxcy, 42. He directed a new trial for William H. Kelley, 59, a man on death row since 1984.
Roettger, who sits in Fort Lauderdale, outlined how then-state prosecutor Hardy Pickard withheld basic evidence to secure a conviction. Pickard was also the prosecutor for Juan Roberto Melendez, who spent 17 years on death row before a Polk County judge last December declared important evidence had been withheld.
Roettger said the prosecutor withheld plenty, including: a report that showed Kelley's fingerprints weren't found in the home.
A 2nd police report in which a description of the alleged triggerman, "William Kelley," was of a 6-foot, dark curly-haired man of about 40 with a deep, husky voice. Kelley, at the time of the murder, was 23 and blond.
A transcript from the 1st trial of the original suspect: Boston mobster Johnny Sweet, who beat the murder rap twice and then fingered Kelley.
That transcript, Roettger wrote, could have changed the outcome of Kelley's trial because it contained testimony of a taped telephone conversation in which Sweet talked to his lover, the murder victim's wife, on how he should set somebody up to take the fall for the killing.
Kelley's 1st trial ended in January 1984 with a hung jury. He was convicted in a 2nd trial 3 months later and sent to death row.
Now the question is what happens next. The state routinely appeals such decisions from district judges. However, in the Melendez case that involved the same prosecutor, the state didn't pursue an appeal.