Scott Maxwell: Inmate will be retried, despite confession.

In 2006, a judge and jury sentenced Clemente Javier Aguirre to die for a gruesome double murder.

A 68-year-old wheelchair-bound woman, Carol Bareis, had been stabbed twice. Her daughter, Cheryl Williams, was stabbed 129 times.

Aguirre was the cops’ prime suspect.

He lived next door in the Altamonte Springs trailer park. His bloody footprints were found at the scene. And the daughter/granddaughter of the victims testified that Aguirre, a Honduran native working as a prep cook without legal citizenship status, had broken into their trailer before, saying she once woke in the middle of the night to find him standing over her bed.

So jurors convicted Aguirre and recommended he die. And he sat on death row for years … until something shocking happened: Someone else confessed to the crime.

The confessor? The daughter/ granddaughter of the victims — the same woman who had helped convict Aguirre by claiming he had broken into the trailer before.

Her name was Samantha Lee Williams. And she didn’t just confess once. She confessed “on five different occasions to four different people,” the Florida Supreme Court later concluded.

One friend testified that Samantha, who had been involuntarily committed dozens of times, said that “the demons in her head made her do it.”

Another said Samantha told her: “I’m crazy, I’m evil, and I killed my grandmother and my mother.”

Evidence would later reveal Samantha’s own blood was found at the murder scene — and that Aguirre’s was not.

Aguirre’s case quickly attracted national attention. A battalion of legal experts — including a former Florida Supreme Court justice and former governor of Texas — argued it was obvious that his conviction should be overturned.

It seemed like a no-brainer. Yet Seminole County Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler refused.

Despite the new DNA results — and a confession from someone else — Recksiedler didn’t believe the new evidence would have changed jurors’ minds.

Her decision seemed to defy common sense. Yet Recksiedler was so proud of her ruling that, when she applied for a position as a judge on a higher court, she cited her denial as example of her judicial prowess.

(Recksiedler never got the promotion to the District Court of Appeal. During the process, she was caught lying about a speeding ticket — one she got on her way to her interview for the job — and was reprimanded for her behavior.)

But here’s the thing about the ruling of which Recksiedler was so proud: It was wrong. Completely wrong.

Not according to me. According to the Florida Supreme Court, which unanimously reversed her ruling and ordered that Aguirre’s conviction be tossed. Please turn to MAXWELL, B2

The justices concluded that the judge got it wrong in many ways, ruling that all the new evidence — including the confession of another person — “weakens the case” so much “to give rise to a reasonable doubt as to his culpability.” End of story, right? Not quite. Prosecutors have decided to retry Aguirre … and Recksiedler is once again presiding over it. That is simply wrong. I suppose we can debate prosecutor Phil Archer’s decision to retry Aguirre.

But there’s no debate that Recksiedler should be off this case.

She botched it once — according to a unanimous ruling — and cited that botched ruling to try to score a promotion. She has a vested interest in trying to prove herself right.

The Innocence Project filed a motion last week asking Recksiedler to recuse herself from the case.

She should grant it before hearings resume this morning.

Recksiedler’s office said she’s prohibited from commenting on the case. But even if she believes she can be the wisest, most impartial jurist in Florida, she should step aside to remove any further taint from a case that has been a hot mess for years.

If she stays put, it’s a recipe for yet another appeal.

This case underscores greater concerns about the death penalty in general — especially in Florida, a state that has more overturned death-penalty convictions than any other.

We live in a state more interested in vengeance than justice.

Even while Aguirre was wrongly on death row, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Rick Scott were championing the “Timely Justice Act” ... to try to execute people faster.

Justice without accuracy isn’t justice. It’s merely bloodlust.

Aguirre deserves a fair hearing — just as direly as the two murdered women deserve accurate and untainted justice.