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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Death |
Years Imprisoned: |
19 |
Year Crime: |
1994 |
Year Convicted: |
1999 |
Year Cleared: |
2012 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Florida |
County or Region of Crime: |
Broward |
City of Crime: |
Miramar |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Seth Penalver was wrongly convicted in 1999 of a 1994 triple murder in Broward County, Florida and sentenced to death. Penalver's first trial ended in a mistrial and he was convicted after his second trial in 1999. A new trial was ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 based on evidentiary issues. Penalver's third trial began in July 2012. Penalver's conviction had been based on the prosecution's claim that he was one of the perpetrators captured on a surveillance videotape. During his retrial Penalver presented the expert testimony of a forensic anthropologist who testified that Penalver was not a person in the videotape. After hearing testimony for almost five months, the jury deliberated for 10 days before acquitting Penalver on December 21, 2012. He was released after 19 years of custody, 7 of which were spent on Florida's death row. Penalver's lawyer worked on his case for 18 years. On February 4, 2016 the Florida Supreme Court granted the post-conviction petition of Penalver's codefendant, Pablo Ibar, who was jointly tried with him in his first trial, but who were tried separately in their retrials. Ibar was sentenced to death after his convictions for the three murders. Like Penalver, there was no physical, forensic, or eyewitness evidence linking him to the crimes -- only the prosecution's claim that he was one of the perpetrators in the surveillance video. The Court ruled that Ibar's trial counsel was constitutionally ineffective for failing to present an expert in facial identification to provide evidence Ibar wasn't in the video. The Court ordered a retrial." |
Conviction Caused By: |
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Innocence Proved By: |
"The jury hearing Penalver's retrial acquitted him on December 21, 1994 and he was released after 19 years of custody." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
21 |
Age When Released: |
40 |
Sex: |
Male |
Skin/Ethnicity: |
White |
Information Source 1: |
"Seth Penalver Acquitted in 1994 Miramar Triple Murder, NBCMiami, December 21, 2012" |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Seth-Penalver-Acquitted-in-1994-Miramar-Triple-Murder-184509851.html |
Information Source 2: |
"Penalver v. Florida, 926 So. 2d 1118 (Fla. Sup Ct., Feb. 2, 2006) (Reversing conviction and ordering a retrial.)" |
Information Location 2: |
"https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4040534509220598303&q=Penalver+v.+Florida,+926+So.+2d+1118+%28Fla.+Sup+Ct.,+Feb.+2,+2006&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48" |
Information Source 3: |
"Pablo Ibar v. State of Florida, No. SC12-522 & SC12-2619 (Flor. Sup. Ct., 2-4-2016) (Granting post-conviction petition based on ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to call a facial recognition expert, and ordering a new trial.)" |
Information Location 3: |
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2016/sc12-522.pdf |
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Comments About Case: |
Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org