Attorneys defending Rudolph Holton presented the results Monday of a DNA test that could help clear Holton in the 1986 slaying of Katrina Graddy.

The test shows that hairs found inside a shaving kit discovered near the crime scene and loosely linked to Holton by a witness did not come from the defendant or the victim, said defense lawyer Martin McClain.

``There's really not much evidence at this point that links Rudolph Holton to this murder,'' McClain said.

``My client has been sitting on death row for 15 years for a crime he did not commit.''

Holton was convicted in December 1986 of raping Graddy, strangling her and burning her body.

The teenager lived on Scott Street in what neighbors called a crack house, court records show.

But Holton's attorneys have been filing one challenge after another, and now even prosecutors are conceding that the case is in trouble.

This year Holton's attorneys successfully argued that the judge, Coe, made an error when he sentenced Holton to death.

Coe, who later became Hillsborough County's state attorney, committed suicide last year.

DNA testing did not exist in 1986, and Holton was convicted largely on the statements of a handful of witnesses whose testimony has since unraveled.

The prosecution's chief witness, a jailhouse informant who said Holton confessed to the murder, later recanted.

Tampa lawyer Joe Episcopo, who prosecuted Holton, said that the informant was the state's strongest witness.

``Now, even I have second thoughts about this case,'' Episcopo said Monday.

And many of the other witnesses who had testified against Holton admitted during a hearing in April that they had lied about seeing Holton with Graddy the night she died.

One witness who said that he had given Holton a ride to Graddy's house and told police that Holton was carrying a shaving kit later said that he was drunk and might have misidentified Holton.

Besides the shaving kit, the only physical evidence against Holton was a pack of cigarettes found in another room of the house Graddy lived in.

Police found Holton's fingerprints on the pack, but Holton said that he had smoked crack at the home before and probably had discarded the pack.

Police said there was other trash in the room, including other cigarette packs.

The issue now is whether Holton should be granted a new trial.

Prosecutors are expected to review the case Thursday.

There will be another hearing before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Daniel Perry on Friday.

``It's no secret that if this case was retried now, it would be a lot different than it was 15 years ago,'' said Assistant State Attorney Wayne Chalu.

Mina Morgan, Holton's original defense attorney, said the case against Holton has come undone.

``Rudolph Holton was a burglar and a drug addict,'' she said Monday, ``but he was never a murderer.''