FORT LAUDERDALE (Fla.) — Monday’s ruling exonerated four young African American men from the false accusation they raped a white girl seven decades ago. This is a partial and late apology for one of Florida’s most egregious miscarriages in justice during the Jim Crow era.
The local prosecutor requested that Administrative Judge Heidi Davis dismiss the indictments against Ernest Thomas and Samuel Shepherd. They were both fatally shot by law enforcers. She also rescinded the convictions of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, and set aside their sentences. The Groveland Four, a group of men ranging in age from 16 to 26, were accused of raping an unmarried woman in Groveland, central Florida, in 1949.
After the hearing at the Lake County courthouse, where the original trials took place, Bill Gladson, the local attorney, stated that they had followed the evidence to find the right path. Gladson, a Republican from Illinois, requested that the men be exonerated last month.
Families of the men suggested that this case might spark a reexamination and review of other convictions of Black women and men from Jim Crow era, so that those wrongly convicted can be cleared.
“We are blessed. This is a good start, because many people didn’t have this chance. Many families did not get the chance. Aaron Newson, Thomas’ nephew, said that they might. As he spoke, he broke down in tears. “This country must come together.”
Thomas was shot more than 400 times by a posse shortly after the rape accusations. Willis McCall the local sheriff shot Shepherd and injured Irvin as he drove them to their second trial in 1951 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the original convictions. Although the sheriff claimed that the men attempted to flee, Irvin stated that McCall and his deputy had shot them in cold-blood.
Gilbert King, the Pulitzer Prize winner for his 2012 book, “Devil in the Grove” (Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America), attended the hearing along with Thurgood Marshall Jr. the late U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Thurgood Marshall Sr. was then representing Irvin in his second trial. However, an all-white jury convicted him again and sentenced him to death. Irvin was able to escape execution in 1954, and Gov. LeRoy Collins reduced his sentence to life without parole. Greenlee was also sentenced to death in 1962. He was paroled in 2012 and later died. One year after his parole, Irvin was killed.
King stated that having the men exonerated in a building where trials were held was “of considerable importance” because upstairs was a courtroom, where “72 years ago (an) ababomination of justice occurred.” Gladson was also praised for his pursuit of justice.
King stated that King could have simply thrown the case off the track and let another person deal with it. King said that even though it was frustrating and there was no way to get there, he continued to work hard.
Marshall Jr. stated that the Groveland Four had “haunted” him father, perhaps more than any other case.
Marshall Jr. stated that Marshall believed there were better days ahead.
In 2017, the Florida Legislature formally apologized for the offenses to the families of the men. Gov. Ron DeSantis, the three-member Cabinet of the state, granted posthumous pardons over two years ago. The case was reviewed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2018, when Pam Bondi, then Florida Attorney General, directed it. The agency had earlier this year referred its findings and recommendations to Gladson for his review.
Gladson interviewed the grandson Jesse Hunter, who was the prosecutor for two of the Groveland Four indictants. The grandson said that Broward Hunter, his grandfather, and a judge in this case knew that there had been no rape.
Gladson was also suggested by Gladson that Willis might have killed Shepherd and Irvin due to the sheriff’s involvement with an illegal gambling operation. Gladson believed this was based on letters Gladson found in his grandfather’s office in 1971. Shepherd was also believed to have been involved in the gambling operation. Hunter said that Willis may have seen a case of rape as “a way to obtain some people that were on [his] s— list.” Hunter informed Hunter, the investigator and prosecutor.
Gladson stated that James Yates, a deputy, who was a primary witness, probably fabricated evidence including shoe casts.
In September, the prosecutor had Irvin’s pants sent by the prosecution to a crime laboratory to be tested for semen. This was something that was not done at Irvin’s trial. Jurors were also given the impression that the pants were stained. According to the motion, there was no evidence of semen.
Gladson stated in his motion that “the significance of this finding cannot overstated.”
