Mr. Snowden was sentenced in 1986 to five - count 'em, five - life terms. After he served nearly 12 years in prison, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned Mr. Snowden's conviction, noting that his conviction was based on the flimsiest of evidence. After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of Florida's attorney general, Florida stopped its plans to retry Mr. Snowden, whose life, to put it mildly, was largely destroyed by Janet Reno.