A Florida judge on Monday exonerated four Black men who were wrongly accused of raping a teenage White girl more than seven decades ago in …
A Florida judge on Monday exonerated four Black men who were wrongly accused of raping a teenage White girl more than seven decades ago in what is considered one of the greatest miscarriages of justice of the state’s Jim Crow-era history. The ruling in Lake County followed prosecutors‘ motion to vacate the convictions against Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin and charges against Ernest Thomas and Samuel Shepherd – known as the “ Groveland Four.“ None of the men are alive today. Carol Greenlee, daughter of Charles Greenlee, said she remembers visiting her father in prison as a young child. „I would not hate, but I will love and embrace all of those who did not know at the time that my father was a caring and loving and compassionate person that did not rape anybody,“ she said during a news conference following the hearing at the same courthouse where the original trials were held.
