Florida: Man exonerated in Seminole County double murder after 10 years on death row

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin after his exoneration hearing on Monday, Nov. 5.

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin 'nearly executed for a crime he didn't commit'

All charges have been dropped against a man who spent more than 14 years in jail and a decade on Florida's death row for the 2004 murders of his Altamonte Springs neighbors, according to State Attorney Phil Archer.

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin was arrested at 24 years old and received the death penalty in 2006 for the stabbing deaths of his neighbors, Cheryl Williams and her mother, Carol Bareis.

Aguirre, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, found their bodies, but didn't report it in fear of being deported, he told authorities. The victims had been stabbed dozens of times. While checking for a pulse, Aguirre's attorneys said he got their blood on his clothing.

The Innocence Project, which works to exonerate wrongly convicted people, took on Aguirre’s case in 2011.

In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously overturned Aguirre’s conviction and death sentence based on new evidence that included DNA testing of multiple pieces of crime scene evidence that implicated another suspect: the victims’ daughter and granddaughter, Samantha Williams.

Williams later confessed that she committed the murders to numerous friends and acquaintances who had no connection to Aguirre, according to the Innocence Project.

Archer planned to seek the death penalty again in a re-trial, but Aguirre's lawyers presented the State Attorney's Office with additional evidence "undermining Williams’ alibi and further implicating her emerged in recent pretrial proceedings," according to a news release.

On Monday, the State Attorney's Office announced it was dropping the prosecution of Aguirre, now 38. His 2nd trial was set to begin this week.

"While the State has serious concerns about the credibility of Mr. Aguirre-Jarquin's statement of facts regarding his participation in this incident, the State does not believe further incarceration of Mr. Aguirre-Jarquin is warranted or justified at this time," a spokesperson for the State Attorney's Office said. "We appreciate the efforts of his attorney's in presenting this new evidence."

Williams has not been charged in the deaths of her mother and grandmother.

A spokesperson for the state attorney's office said prosecutors "will be meeting with the Seminole County Sheriff's Office over the coming weeks to review the evidence and determine if there are any investigative avenues that can be pursued, or any further action to be taken in this case."

Aguirre's exoneration hearing Monday in Seminole County was attended by more than a dozen lawyers who worked on his case over the last decade, along with his 2 sisters and friends.

After the hearing Aguirre thanked his legal team.

“I have only forgiveness in my heart for those who did wrong to me," Aguirre said.

“Mr. Aguirre was nearly executed for a crime he didn’t commit,” one of Aguirre’s lead trial attorneys, Joshua Dubin, said. “While we are overjoyed that his ordeal is finally over, the case of Clemente Aguirre should serve as a chilling cautionary tale about how dangerous it is when there is a rush to judgment in a capital case."

There is an immigration hold on Aguirre's jail file preventing his release.

Source: clickorlando.com, Emilee Speck, November 5, 2018

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin: Florida Death Row Exoneration #28

Circuit Judge John D. Galluzzo has dismissed all charges and exonerated Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin after prosecutors announced today, in the middle of jury selection, that they will not proceed with his retrial.

Clemente spent nearly 15 years behind bars — including 10 on Florida's death row.

Kudos to The Innocence Project and the dedicated team of attorneys who donated their time and worked for years to make this possible.

“Mr. Aguirre was nearly executed for a crime he didn’t commit,” said Joshua Dubin, one of Aguirre’s lead trial attorneys.

This is the 28th death row exoneration in Florida since executions resumed in the 1970's. One wonders how many more innocent people remain on Florida's death row and how many other innocent men and women have already been executed. We will never know for sure. By state statute, the evidence is destroyed after an execution.

Please support the statewide organized grassroots effort to end executions in Florida.

Please share this message with others. Only with your help can the work be done and progress made.

Source: www.fadp.org, Mark Elliott, November 6, 2018. Mark Elliott is Executive Director, Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

South Carolina | Inmate who believes he’s died repeatedly can’t be executed, judge rules

SPARTANBURG — A 59-year-old man sentenced to death for killing a state trooper in Greenville County in 2000 can’t be executed because of a mental illness that’s left him incoherent and believing he’s immortal, a Circuit Court judge has ruled. John Richard Wood is the first condemned inmate in South Carolina found not competent to be executed since the state restarted capital punishment in September 2024. The seven executions since then include three men who chose to die by firing squad — the latest in November. Wood, convicted 24 years ago, was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting their regular appeals.

Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer. As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago was executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers. The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

Texas | James Broadnax's appeals: US Supreme Court denies 2 claims, confession pending

Despite an 11th-hour confession from another man, James Broadnax is slated to be executed by the state of Texas later this week. Broadnax, 37, is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection April 30 in Huntsville. He was condemned by a Dallas County jury in 2009 for the deaths of Stephen Swan, 26, and Matthew Butler, 28, outside their Garland music studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, had set out to rob the men, but left with only $2 and a 1995 Ford, according to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

Iran to execute first woman linked to mass protests after ‘forced confessions’

Bita Hemmati and three others have been sentenced to death for 'collusion' and 'propaganda.' Advocates claim the charges are baseless, citing a secretive process and state-televised interrogations. Iranian authorities are preparing to execute Bita Hemmati, the first woman sentenced to death in connection with the mass protests in Tehran in late December and January, according to the US-based non-profit the Human Rights Activists News Agency. Judge Iman Afshari, of Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, sentenced Hemmati, her husband, Mohammadreza Majidi Asl, and Behrouz Zamaninezhad, and Kourosh Zamaninezhad to death on the charge of “operational action for the hostile government of the United States and hostile groups,” in addition to discretionary imprisonment period of five years on the charge of “assembly and collusion against national security.”

Florida executes Chadwick Scott Willacy

STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who set his neighbor on fire after she returned from work to find him burglarizing her home was executed Tuesday evening. Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, received a three-drug injection and was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather. It was Florida's fifth execution this year. The curtain to the execution chamber went up promptly at the scheduled 6 p.m. time, and the lethal injection got underway two minutes later, after Willacy made a brief statement.

US Department of Justice announces decision to resume federal executions

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that it will resume the federal use of capital punishment and that it is seeking death sentences against 44 defendants. DOJ also said that it will use firing squads, electrocution, or nitrogen asphyxiation if the drug used in lethal injection is unavailable. The announcement follows the Restoring and Strengthening the Federal Death Penalty report, published on April 24. The report is especially critical of the moratorium on federal executions, ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland in July 2021, to remain until the death penalty could be conducted “fairly and humanely.” Garland was concerned about the federal lethal injection protocol, which uses only one drug, pentobarbital, and the possibility that it causes “unnecessary pain and suffering.” In response to Garland’s moratorium and concerns, President Biden commuted the sentences of 37 prisoners on federal death row, leaving only three prisoners.

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