Groveland Four Are Exonerated More Than 70 Years Later

Four Black men wrongly charged with raping a achromatic pistillate much than 70 years agone successful Florida were exonerated connected Monday, bringing an extremity to a saga that has shadowed their families for decades.

The accused — Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas, known arsenic the Groveland Four — died earlier Florida officials re-examined the case, which a authoritative said lacked owed process and would not beryllium tried today.

It each began connected July 16, 1949, erstwhile a 17-year-old achromatic pistillate and her estranged hubby told the constabulary that aft their car broke down successful Lake County, Fla., the 4 men had stopped to supply help, past took the pistillate from the car and raped her.

The accusation near a way of destruction. Mr. Thomas was killed by a mob aft fleeing Lake County. Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd, some of whom were World War II veterans, were changeable by Willis McCall, the Lake County Sheriff, portion they were being taken to a pretrial proceeding earlier their cases were retried successful 1951. The sheriff claimed that the men, who were successful handcuffs, had tried to escape.

Mr. Greenlee, who was 16 erstwhile helium was charged, was the lone 1 to past past 1969. He died successful 2012, astatine 78.

Heidi Davis, a Lake County circuit tribunal administrative judge, connected Monday acceptable speech the judgments and sentences for Mr. Greenlee and Mr. Irvin. The tribunal dismissed the indictments of Mr. Thomas and Mr. Shepherd, whose cases had not been tried, oregon were being retried, erstwhile they were killed.

Carol Greenlee, the girl of Mr. Greenlee, said she had been seeking her father’s exoneration since the precocious 1960s, adjacent though helium forbid her to bash it due to the fact that the lawsuit was truthful achy for him. Ms. Greenlee, 72, said the court’s ruling was the extremity “of feeling that cipher is listening, that you are wrong a situation of your ain that you request to interruption retired but you don’t cognize however due to the fact that each the doors are locked.”

The authorities lawyer for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, Bill Gladson, filed a question to disregard the charges aft the lawsuit was referred to his bureau by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement successful July.

In August, investigators spoke with a grandson of Jesse Hunter, the authorities lawyer who prosecuted the case. Broward Hunter said helium recovered correspondence successful his grandfather’s instrumentality bureau that convinced him that Jesse Hunter and the justice presiding implicit the retrial knew that nary rape had occurred.

Investigators were besides skeptical astir grounds provided by James Yates, a sheriff’s lawman who was the state’s superior witnesser successful the 1949 proceedings and the 1951 retrial.

While families of the accused were haunted by the lawsuit for decades, it took 2 books to spur a re-examination: “Legal Lynching: The Sad Saga of the Groveland Four,” by Gary Corsair, published successful 2004, and “Devil successful the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America,” by Gilbert King, which won a Pulitzer Prize aft it was published successful 2012.

In April 2017, the authorities of Florida formally apologized to the families of the 4 men. In December 2018, the Department of Law Enforcement was ordered to reappraisal the case. The 4 men were pardoned by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2019.

At the clip of the pardon, Norma Padgett, the pistillate who said she was raped, testified astatine a clemency committee proceeding that she did not privation them pardoned. She could not beryllium reached for remark connected Monday.

In October, Mr. Gladson filed a question to wide each 4 men of the charges.

He wrote successful his motion that today, nary “fair-minded” authoritative would adjacent see filing the charges and that “the grounds powerfully suggests that the sheriff, the justice and the authoritative each but ensured blameworthy verdicts successful this case.”