The Umansky Law Firm

A convicted ax murderer was in court Monday asking the judge to throw out his conviction and death sentence. The 48-year-old is challenging one of the most compelling pieces of evidence presented against him: a palm print wrongly linked to him by a now-discredited fingerprint expert.

The man has been convicted of killing a 71-year-old Oviedo resident as he stepped out of his car in March of 2000. The ax the killer used came from a cabinet in the victim’s garage. A fingerprint expert at the time testified that a bloody palm print at the scene belonged to the convicted man, but the print was later re-analyzed last year by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a defense expert who both concluded it could not be matched to the convicted man. The initial fingerprint "expert" has since been fired because FDLE found eight other mistakes she made.

Defense attorneys claim the man’s conviction should be overturned for a variety of reasons including the fingerprint mistake, several errors made by his trial lawyers, and because he was high on cocaine at the time of the alleged attack. Florida law allows judges and juries to be more lenient with defendants who commit crimes while intoxicated by drugs and alcohol.

If you have found yourself charged with a serious crime in the state of Florida, please contact the attorneys at The Umansky Law Firm today to schedule your private consultation.