Florida Today

Crosley Green should be a free man.

That's what his attorneys argued in a motion filed Wednesday with the U.S. Middle District Court of Florida, the same court that ruled Green should go free or receive a new trial earlier this year.

Who is convicted murderer Crosley Green?

Green, 61, has served 29 years of his life sentence for the 1989 murder of Charles "Chip" Flynn and for kidnapping Flynn's former girlfriend, Kim Hallock, from a Mims orange grove. He was originally sentenced to death before his sentence was commuted to life in prison.

In August, the U.S. Middle District Court of Florida granted Green a new trial saying Green's constitutional rights had been violated when Brevard County prosecutor Chris White suppressed evidence from the defense team. The court gave the state 90 days to retry Green or release him.

But Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi appealed that ruling a few weeks later and received a stay on the 90-day clock.

Calling Green an "unconstitutionally incarcerated prisoner" based on the court's August ruling, Green's attorney Keith Harrison of the Washington D.C.-based firm Crowell & Moring, which has represented the Titusville man pro bono for more than a decade, said the court should allow Green to be released on bond until the state's appeal is ruled upon.

"Mr. Green’s unconstitutional incarceration should not continue pending the State’s appeal," Harrison wrote. "As a model prisoner who poses no risk of flight or public harm, Mr. Green’s continued incarceration constitutes irreparable harm to him, but given the stay, his release poses no harm to the State. And the public interest weighs in favor of Mr. Green’s release."

Harrison also referenced Green's stellar prison record and included sworn statements from several Florida Corrections officers attesting to Green's behavior.

One such statement, by Sgt. J. Wallace of Hardee Correctional Institution, referred to Green as "even-keeled" and an "outstanding inmate."

"I do not think Mr. Green poses any threat to society," Wallace wrote. "In fact, I think he would be just fine going back out into society."

Pam Bondi fights to keep Crosley Green in prison

Green's conviction came under scrutiny after every state witness recanted their testimony against him, saying they were coerced or threatened by the state to testify. Other problems with the case involve the use of a dog tracker who claimed he tracked a pair of sneakers left at the crime scene to Green's house. The problem was the shoes were not Green's.

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement forensic analysis revealed none of Green's fingerprints on Flynn's truck despite the fact the modified vehicle was raised up meaning you had to hold onto something like a door handle to pull yourself up into it. Also, Hallock claimed that Green drove the vehicle.

There was also a prejudiced photo lineup and only one bullet or casing found at the scene and it belonged to Flynn's gun.

Hallock left a mortally injured Flynn at the scene and drove past a hospital, the home she shared with her parents and many other homes before arriving at a friend's house to say Flynn had been shot. And Flynn himself refused to tell responding officers what had occurred saying only to get him out of there and that he wanted to go home.

But it was the evidence suppressed by White that was enough for the Middle District Court of Florida to grant Green a new trial. The evidence not shared with Green's defense contained statements from the two responding officers saying they believed Hallock and not "some black guy" -- as she claimed -- was responsible for the fatal shooting. White also withheld the fact that Hallock admitted to tying Flynn's hands behind his back.

In appealing the court's decision, Bondi played down the role of the officers who first responded to the murder scene. "It is unimaginable that the result of the trial would have been different based on the inadmissible testimony of two police officers who only responded to the crime scene in the middle of the night, and had no further participation in the investigation," she wrote.

Case of Crosley Green: Was an innocent man convicted of murder 25 years ago?

Contact Torres at 321-242-3684

or jtorres@floridatoday.com.

Twitter: @johnalbertorres

Facebook: /FTjohntorres

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