Rudolph Holton
Rudolph Holton
RELEASED JANUARY 24, 2003 RUDOLPH HOLTON IS NOW A FREE MAN !
Rudolph
Holton
RELEASED JANUARY 24, 2003 
RUDOLPH WINS A NEW TRIAL !
Hillsborough Court in Tampa Rules: Friday November 2, 2001
http://www.oranous.com/innocence/RudolphHolton/innocent.htm
Judge Daniel Perry - Lawyers Linda McDermott and Martin McClain, CCRC North
The truth is now emerging about Rudolph's wrongful conviction !
New stories cast
doubt on a murder verdict - Witnesses and new evidence
run counter to those
presented at a man's homicide trial in 1986.
By DAVID
KARP
St. Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2001
Witnesses and new evidence run counter to those presented at a man's homicide trial in 1986.
TAMPA -- Fourteen years ago,
prosecutor Joe Episcopo stood before a jury at the end of Rudolph
Holton's murder trial.
Episcopo's work during the
trial garnered little attention then, even though the killing was particularly
gruesome. A 17-year-old woman
was sexually assaulted, strangled and set on fire in an abandoned
drug house.
As Episcopo built to a dramatic
close, he reviewed the evidence in what was largely a circumstantial
case: A jailhouse inmate had
said Holton confessed; a witness had seen Holton go into the drug
house with a woman; a piece
of hair that might have been Holton's had been found in the woman's
mouth.
"Ladies and gentleman, that's
our case," Episcopo said. "We don't apologize for it."
Maybe not, but more than a
decade later prosecutors are having to defend it. In a three-day hearing
last week:
A jailhouse informant who testified
in 1986 that Holton confessed said last week that he had lied
during the trail.
A witness who testified that
he saw Holton with a girl outside the drug house said he had lied too.
The hair on the victim, which
Episcopo implied might be Holton's, actually came from the murdered
woman, new DNA tests show.
Holton's defense lawyers also
found a witness who testified last week that another man who visited
the drug house had admitted
to killing the victim, Katrina Ann Graddy, a drug addict who worked as
a prostitute.
Ten days before her death,
Graddy filed a police report accusing that man of raping her. She would
die later after being raped.
"They told me to come and tell
the truth," the witness, Donald Smith, said in court last week about
his new testimony. "The
man is innocent."
Circuit Judge Daniel Perry,
who heard the new testimony, stepped down from the bench at one
point, put on latex gloves
and looked through evidence. Perry later asked for DNA tests on hair
found in a bag across the street
from the crime scene.
Prosecutors already agreed
last year to give Holton a new sentencing hearing because former Judge
Harry Lee Coe, who presided
over the trial, made basic mistakes in the case. That hearing has not
been set yet.
Last week, defense attorneys
argued Holton should get a new trial. Judge Perry is expected to
decide later this year whether
to grant a new trial.
When Holton was arrested in
1986, he was hardly a sympathetic figure. Then 33, he had been
convicted of at least 13 crimes,
mainly burglaries and drug charges. But he didn't have a record of
violence.
When detectives first interviewed
him, he lied about being in the drug house. Later, police told him
they had found his fingerprint
on a cigarette pack inside the house. He insisted the print couldn't have
been his.
It was, but the fingerprint
alone wouldn't have been enough to convict Holton of murder. Scores of
drug users, including Holton,
used the house. What hurt Holton were the witnesses.
At his trial, resident Carrie
Nelson said she saw Holton alone near the drug house at 11 p.m. the
night of the murder. She knew
Holton because he had robbed her four times.
But last week, one of Nelson's
friends, Elease Moore, 63, said Nelson had made up her story to
stop Holton the robberies.
Nelson, who is now dead, said she had lied, Moore said.
"She was going to get even
with him," Moore testified.
Another key witnesses was Johnny
Lee Newsome, who testified at Holton's trial that he had seen
him outside the drug house
at 11 p.m. on the night of the murder with a girl.
"I didn't see him that night,"
Newsome acknowledged last week. Newsome, who was on probation,
lied to keep police from investigating
him, he said.
"I was scared," he said. "I
thought the police would get me for something I was doing."
Flemnie Birkins, a jailhouse
informer who testified in 1986 that Holton had confessed to the murder,
also acknowledged fabricating
testimony.
"I told (the detective) what
he wanted to hear," Birkins said. "I used it to my advantage."
At the trial, Episcopo portrayed
Birkins as an honest man, appalled by the crime, who had not made
a deal with prosecutors.
"This is a horrible crime that
even a fellow black inmate will not tolerate," Episcopo told the jury,
which had no African-Americans
on it.
Episcopo also suggested that
the hair found in the victim's mouth belonged to Holton.
An FBI agent had testified
that the hair belonged to a black person, but he couldn't prove it was
Holton. The only other possibility?
The hair belonged to the victim.
But Episcopo discarded that idea.
"We can say they are not her
hairs," Episcopo told the jury. "How are hairs down there going to get
in her mouth? . . . I would
just defy anybody to tell me how those are her hairs, how she got them."
DNA tests completed last year
show that the hairs were, in fact, the victim's.
St.
Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2001
Despite the fact that Rudolph is innocent,
he remains on Florida's Death Row !
Please write Rudolph and show your support
RUDOLPH'S LETTER AND PENPAL REQUEST
At this time let me give you a little history about myself. My name is Rudolph Holton and I am 46 years old and I have been on Death Row for 13 years. My date of birth is April 20. I have made some bad decisions in my life, but I am not a killer. Some of my physical characteristics is I am 5 ft. 8 in. In height and I weigh 170 lbs., black hair and brown eyes. I grew up in a lovely culturally diversified neighborhood in Ybor City. I keep abreast of current topics and can communicate well with anyone on different subjects. Some interests of mine are art, basketball, and Van Halen. As far as art, I have always loved the work of Salvador Dali and would like to one day attend the museum. I have been into art since I was 10 years old and I love it. My parents have departed this life and I believe that they are with the Lord. Yes, I am a believer in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and I do have them in my life. My family has been very supportive of me, but they can only do so much. I try to do some work on my case because the attorneys that the state provides for Death Row inmates are not any good and they will not really "fight" for me; they will do so much and that's it. Currently I have been assigned a different attorney and investigator on my case that I feel really do believe that I am innocent and will do all they can to help. But, they really need more help, there is just so much the state will allow them to do. I truly believe that one day I will prove my innocence with some help. I know that every prisoner say that they are innocent, and they are not all innocent, but I am innocent. The reason I am writing this letter to you is because I really need help and I am fighting for my life and to be free; I will never give up on that. The circuit court judge assigned to my case hindered my trial attorney in every way that he could. The prosecutor in the case did everything and anything to ensure that he won the case; what I mean is there was a lot of lying going on by the state. The State Attorney's office got rid of him because there was a big investigation done about his practices and what he had been doing, but again it was too late for me.
I will tell you a little about Death Row and how things are really. People on Death Row experience indescribable emotional and mental suffering and they are psychologically abused and dehumanized in many ways. Many of them have little or no contact with people from the outside other than contact with a legal representative; which many of them rarely, if ever, receive a personal visit from a friend or family member. But myself I don't get any visits from anyone, but I am always praying to God to give me a strong mind and help me. Now the conditions on Death Row, the cells on Death Row are 6'x9' or 7'x9' an average sized man can stand in the middle of the cell with his arms stretched out and touch both walls. For two hours twice a week Death Row prisoners can go on the 'yard', a concrete-paved enclosure. Death Row prisoners are allowed a quick shower every other night. Otherwise, unless they are fortunate enough to have a visitor, or unless they are taken to the clinic or hospital, Death Row prisoners are in their cells. The cells are brutally hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter. Just imagine that you are existing under such conditions, for months, for years, years doing which you see those you have come to know led away to their execution as you await your death warrant; then try to imagine what it might mean to you to get a letter from someone just because they care. It means a lot to have a money order sent to your account so that you can purchase shoes, thermal underwear, a radio, arts and crafts supplies, soap, shampoo, writing paper, a newspaper or some little snack--basic things that people take for granted. It is especially nice when someone sends you a magazine subscription, a birthday card or to receive cards at other special occasions, such as Christmas, Easter, Fathers Day, etc.
I can telephone you if you will accept collect calls, okay. Well now that you know about me, please write back, I will be waiting anxiously to hear from you soon. So I am looking to hear from you soon, okay! Oh yes, I am back in court trying for a new trial", please keep me in your prayers and I will be praying for you.
Sincerely,
Rudolph Holton
Rudolph Holton 97066508
1201 Orient Road Jail
Tampa, Florida
33619 USA
RELEASED JANUARY 24, 2003
RUDOLPH HOLTON IS NOW A FREE MAN !
RUDOLPH WINS A NEW TRIAL:
Hillsborough Court in Tampa Rules: Friday November 2, 2001
http://www.oranous.com/innocence/RudolphHolton/innocent.htm
Judge Daniel Perry - Lawyers Linda McDermott and Martin McClain, CCRC North
