US court acquits death row inmate

Florida’s supreme court unanimously ordered the acquittal of a death row inmate, saying prosecutors had not proved he killed two neighbours.

John Ballard, 37, has served nearly three years for the 1999 murders of his friends Jennifer Jones and Willie Ray Patin, whose skulls were smashed in their apartment.

“It’s music to my ears,” said Michael Orlando, Ballard’s lawyer, yesterday. “It’s taken a long journey, but it was well worth the wait for this particular result.”

The state would not ask the court to reconsider its ruling, said Carolyn Snurkowski, a lawyer for Florida’s attorney general. The trial judge must sign an order for Ballard to be released.

Chere Avery, a spokeswoman for the Collier County State Attorney’s Office, said only that prosecutors were disappointed.

The only evidence tying Ballard to the crime was a fingerprint on a bed frame and an arm hair found in Jones’ hand, the high court said. But the court noted the possibility that Ballard left the fingerprint and hair during one of his many visits.

Jones was a marijuana dealer and gang members had shot at the flat a week before the killings, the court said. But prosecutors never presented evidence ruling out the gang members as the killers.

Also, prosecutors believe the killer’s motive was robbery – Jones kept large amounts of money in the apartment – but there was no evidence Ballard had such money after the killings, the court said.