Groveland Four exonerated after 70 years of being wrongfully accused

The families of the “Groveland Four” got some closure after Florida officially cleared the four young Black men who were wrongly accused of raping a 17-year-old White girl in 1949.

Groveland Four Exonerated

Circuit Court Judge Heidi Davis in Lake County, Florida, granted the State’s motion to posthumously dismiss the indictments of Ernest Thomas and Samuel Shepherd and vacated the convictions of Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin, in the case known as the “Groveland Four.”

Falsely accused

In 1949, Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas were accused of sexually assaulting Norma Padgett in Groveland, Florida, about 30 miles west of Orlando. The group came to be called the “Groveland Four.”

The case was considered one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Jim Crow-era Florida.

While there were doubts about Padgett’s testimony from the onset, in an era of Jim Crow, a jury utlimately convicted the men without evidence of a crime.

“For 72 years the families have been living with this and traveling with this journey waiting for today,” said Bill Gladson, the state attorney, after Monday’s hearing. Gladson moved last month to have the men officially exonerated. None of the men are still alive.

Gladson said once new evidence was presented, the state sought justice.

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