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More proof of innocence in Florida case
Posted: November 20, 2007 10:55 am
Chad Heins has been imprisoned for 13 years in Florida for the murder of his sister-in-law, a crime he has always said he didn’t commit. Based on DNA testing secured by the Innocence Project, Heins’ murder conviction was thrown out last December, but the prosecution is re-trying him for the crime. New DNA test results reported yesterday provide further proof of his innocence.
Heins has been an Innocence Project client since 2001, and DNA tests in 2003 first showed that an unknown man’s hairs were on the victim’s bed and the same man’s skin cells were under her fingernails. The new results show that semen from her bed also matches the unknown man. Prosecutors had previously argued that a stray hair from a stranger had accidentally ended up in the victim’s bedroom.
"It completely blows out of the water any notion that the sheet picked up a stray hair," (Innocence Project Co-Director) Barry Scheck said. "That is completely absurd."Read more about Heins’ case in previous blog posts.
Chad Heins' stepmother in Wisconsin said she is grateful for any news that bolsters his innocence but said waiting for justice has been frustrating.
"It's kind of like you don't know what to feel because he's still in there. You hate to get your hopes up," said Mary Heins. "It's like, how much more time before this is over?"
Read the full story. (Florida Times-Union, 11/20/07)
Tags: Florida, Chad Heins
Chad Heins, finally free, returns to Wisconsin
Posted: December 6, 2007 1:26 pm
Innocence Project client Chad Heins, exonerated and released on Tuesday in Jacksonville, Florida, rejoined his family in Wisconsin on Wednesday. The joyful reunion came more than a decade after Heins was wrongfully convicted of killing his sister-in-law in Florida. He was exonerated and released this week because DNA evidence has shown that an unidentified man killed the victim.
Read media coverage of Heins’ exoneration and his return to Wisconsin below:
Freed man returns home. (First Coast News, 12/06/07)
DNA exonerates Nekoosa man of 94 murder (Wausau, WI Daily Herald, 12/6/07)
13 years later, DNA frees man in family death (Associated Press, 12/05/07)
Tags: Wisconsin, Chad Heins
Prosecutors sought to downplay exculpatory evidence at trial of innocent Florida man
Posted: January 9, 2008 4:15 pm
An article in today’s Florida Times-Union reveals questionable prosecutorial tactics in the case of Chad Heins, who was exonerated last month after serving 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Before Heins was wrongfully convicted in 1996, a Jacksonville prosecutor wrote a letter to the state crime lab asking an expert to downplay evidence indicating that another person may have committed the crime. Hairs found on the bed of the victim, Heins’ sister-in-law, were shown to come from an unknown person. The prosecutor wanted to “minimize” the effect of this evidence at Heins’ trial.
"I need to structure your testimony carefully so as to convince the jury that the unknown hairs are insignificant," Assistant State Attorney Stephen Bledsoe wrote in a letter recently obtained by the Times-Union.
Bledsoe's letter was among thousands of pages of documents examined by Heins' lawyers after a judge allowed re-testing of DNA in the case. Although the attorneys don't believe it affected the outcome of the case, the letter shows a "cavalier disregard for the actual evidence," said Jennifer Greenberg, policy director of the Innocence Project of Florida, which worked for Heins' release.
"It actually made my stomach turn," Greenberg said Tuesday. "This is not a game. This is justice. These are people's lives and they matter and the truth matters."The analyst who received the letter told the Times Union yesterday that analysts never change their findings based on conversations with attorneys. And Robert Link, one of Heins’ attorneys, said the letter had little impact on Heins’ conviction. His exoneration was based on DNA tests proving that the hairs, as well as semen and fingernail scrapings collected from the victim’s body, came from the same unknown man.
Read the full story here, and watch video of Heins’ release.
Read more about Heins' exoneration here.
Tags: Chad Heins
Chad Heins: At home in a new world
Posted: February 19, 2008 9:55 am
A new Florida Times-Union feature checks in with Innocence Project client Chad Heins, two months after his exoneration in Florida. Heins, who served 11 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, lives in Wisonsin with his family. In a video on the Times-Union site, Heins says he tries to stay busy in order to avoid thinking about the years he lost. He was 19 when arrested and 33 when exonerated.
He does his best to lift the pall of 14 years behind bars. He keeps his bedroom blinds open 24-7 so he can always see the countryside. He finds reasons to tinker outside his parents' house in snowy weather - in a T-shirt no less - just so he can feel the northern chill. He teases his mom and sister relentlessly, an impish grin belying years of hard time.Read more about Chad Heins’ case here.
"You don't realize how good it is to be home until you get it all snatched away," he told the Times-Union as he relaxed at the dining room table noshing on brats and cheese curds.
Read the full story and watch the video here. (Florida Times-Union, 02/17/08)
Tags: Florida, Chad Heins
His First Year of Freedom
Posted: December 4, 2008 4:50 pm
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the day Chad Heins walked out of a Florida prison after spending 13 years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit. After his exoneration, he returned to his home state of Wisconsin to live with his family.
The Heins family’s nightmare began on April 17, 1994. Chad had recently moved from Wisconsin to Florida and was living with his brother, Jeremy, and sister-in-law, Tina. Jeremy was in the Navy and on board his ship that night. Chad woke up on the couch at 5:45 a.m. to find three small fires burning in the house. He ran to Tina’s bedroom and found that she had been stabbed to death. Although Heins immediately called police, he quickly became a suspect in the case. Despite the lack of physical evidence, prosecutors developed a case against him. They theorized that Heins had made a sexual pass at his sister-in-law. When Tina Heins refused, they alleged, he broke into a jealous rage and repeatedly stabbed her.
Aside from his presence in the apartment, no evidence suggested that Chad Heins was Tina Heins' murderer. There was no blood on his clothes or under his fingernails, no scratches or scrapes on his body. Furthermore, DNA tests performed on pubic hairs in the victim's bed did not belong to Tina, Chad or Jeremy. However, at trial, two jailhouse snitches testified that Heins spontaneously confessed his guilt to them. Despite the lack of physical evidence, Heins was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2001, Heins wrote to the Innocence Project, which took the case with help from the Innocence Project of Florida. Together with Heins’ pro bono attorney, the Innocence Project filed a motion for DNA testing on the skin cells collected at an autopsy from underneath the victim's fingernails. Additional testing was done on the pubic hairs and semen found at the crime scene. The test results proved that the skin cells, semen and hair all came from an unknown male. As Heins' innocence became clear, key evidence surfaced. During the original trial, prosecutors suppressed evidence that indicated a third person's fingerprints were found in the apartment. After the test results and the suppressed evidence were released, a Florida judge tossed Heins’ conviction and he was exonerated on December 4, 2007. He had been only 19 years old when Tina was murdered and today he is 34.
Learn more about Heins’ case, and read about jailhouse informants as a cause of wrongful conviction.
Other Exoneree Anniversaries:
Marcellius Bradford, Illinois (Served 6.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Dewey Davis, West Virginia (Served 7 years, Exonerated 1995)
Larry Ollins, Illinois (Served 13.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Calvin Ollins, Illinois (Served 13.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Omar Saundars, Illinois (Served 13.5 years, Exonerated 2001)
Tags: Florida, Chad Heins
Chad Heins: Two Years Free
Posted: December 4, 2009 3:19 pm
This week marks the second anniversary of the day Chad Heins (left) walked out of a Florida prison, free at 33 years old for the first time since he was 19.
Heins was convicted in 1996 of murdering his sister-in-law Tina Heins. Chad recently moved from Florida to Wisconsin and was staying with his brother Jeremy and Jeremy’s wife, Tina, when Tina was killed in her bedroom.
Jeremy, who was in the Navy, was on board his ship the night of the crime. Chad had returned home at 12:30 a.m. that night, two hours before his sister-in-law, and was asleep on the sofa during the crime. He woke up around 5:45 a.m. to find three small fires burning in the living room and kitchen, one on the very sofa where he slept. After putting out the fires and disarming the smoke alarm, he discovered Tina Heins in her bedroom; she had been stabbed 27 times.
Heins immediately became a suspect. During his trial, a forensic analyst testified that DNA testing performed on three hairs collected from the victim's bedroom showed that the hairs came from one person, and that person wasn't Chad or Jeremy Heins. Two jailhouse snitches testified at his trial that Heins had spontaneously confessed his guilt to them, and he was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery on December 20, 1996, and sentenced to life in prison.
In 2001, Heins wrote to the Innocence Project, which took the case with help from the Innocence Project of Florida. In 2003, along with pro bono counsel Robert Beckham of Holland & Knight, the Innocence Project filed a motion for DNA testing on skin cells collected at autopsy from underneath the victim's fingernails. She had defense wounds on her hands, meaning that biological evidence from the attacker could be under her fingernails. The DNA test results showed that male DNA under Tina's fingernails did not come from Chad or Jeremy Heins. Additional testing showed that the profile from the hairs was consistent with the DNA from the fingernails -- all belonging to an unknown male.
Attorneys for Heins also learned that a fingerprint had been discovered before trial on the faucet of the blood-stained sink in the Heins' bathroom, where it was undisputed that the perpetrator attempted to clean up after the murder. Although the fingerprint did not match Chad, Jeremy or Tina, prosecutors did not relay this information to the jury.
Heins' conviction was vacated in 2006 based on the DNA evidence, but prosecutors demanded a retrial - further delaying Heins' freedom. The Innocence Project sought DNA testing of semen found at the crime scene. The results showed that the semen came from the same person as the hairs and the cells found under the victim's fingernails. On December 4, 2007, prosecutors dropped the pending charges against Heins and he was freed. Days after his release, Heins moved to Wisconsin to rejoin relatives.
Watch a video interview with Heins and read more about his case in our Know the Cases section.
Other Exoneration Anniversaries This Week:
Dale and Ronnie Mahan, Alabama (Served 11.5 Years, Exonerated 11/30/1998)
Calvin Lee Scott, Oklahoma (Served 20 Years, Exonerated 12/3/03)
Gerald Davis, West Virginia (Served 8 Years, Exonerated 12/4/1995)
Calvin Ollins, Illinois (Served 13,5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)
Larry Ollins, Illinois (Served 13,5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)
Marcellius Bradford (Served 6.5 Years, Exonerated 12/5/01)
Tags: Chad Heins