A Spaniard who was on Florida's death row for a 1997 double murder was acquitted today following a new trial.
Joaquin Jose Martinez was cleared of all charges, according to a prosecutors' spokesman at his second trial, ordered two years ago by the Florida Supreme Court which quashed his original conviction.
Martinez, whose case aroused widespread interest in Spain, has consistently proclaimed his innocence on charges of murdering Douglas Lawson and his finacee Sherry McCoy in an October 1995 double homicide at the house the couple shared in the Tampa suburbs.
In June last year the high court threw out the 1997 court conviction citing irregularities in the case.
The prosecution based its original case on a low quality videotape filmed by Martinez's wife in which he purportedly admitted the killings.
The videotape was not admitted as evidence in the new trial and the prosecution declined to seek the death penalty.
AFP