‘It’s been a long time coming’: Groveland Four win full exoneration on Monday

TAVARES — It’s over.

A judge Monday granted State Attorney Bill Gladson’s motion to exonerate the Groveland Four in what he described as 72 years of “a complete breakdown of the criminal justice system.”

Circuit Judge Heidi Davis, citing the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, said she was “thankful for the privilege of being able to grant the state’s motion.”

Judge Davis’ ruling individually dismisses indictments, sets aside judgments and sentences and corrects the record with newly discovered evidence.

The courtroom, packed with relatives of Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin and Charles Greenlee, erupted in applause. Some dabbed their eyes, hugged each other, and raised their hands praising God. But Carol Greenlee, Greenlee’s daughter, wept uncontrollably.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said.

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“This is the day the Lord has made,” she said later at a press conference across the street at the historic courthouse where the injustice began in 1949.

Sheriff Willis McCall arrested the four Black men when a white woman claimed she was kidnapped and raped when her husband’s car broke down on a country road. She chose not to show up on Monday, but she has stuck to her story over the years.

Thomas was indicted but killed by a posse before he could be arrested. Greenlee, who was just 16, was convicted but a jury recommended mercy instead of a death sentence, and Irvin and Shepherd received a death sentence.

The case against the men was so suspect that the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new trial. Greenlee had not appealed his sentence because he would have risked getting a death sentence. McCall, bringing the two men back to Lake County for a retrial, shot and killed Shepherd and wounded Irvin, claiming they tried to escape.

If Irvin had not survived and told what happened, the story may have ended there, said author Gilbert King at the press conference. King won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 book on the case, “Devil in the Grove.”

Carol Greenlee, like other relatives who spoke at the press conference, praised King, author Gary Corsair, the Florida Department of Investigation, Gladson and others for their work.

Like others, she said the injustice took a toll on the families.

She said she visited her father in prison and played in the prison courtyard when she was 3 years old.

“I felt rejected,” Carol Greenlee said, “but I was not going to let Florida write my story.”

Despite the feelings, she said she was taught never to hate anyone, but to “love and embrace them.”

Beverly Robinson, a cousin of Shepherd, said it brought “decades of suffering.”

“Why write laws if they’re not for everyone?” she said.

Gladson agreed.

Starting in July, after receiving an investigation from the FDLE, he and his staff began an exhaustive review of the case. What he found was fabricated or misrepresented evidence, information withheld from defense attorney and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and hearsay testimony that Judge Truman Futch and prosecutor Jesse Hunter knew that the men were not guilty as the second trial approached.

Gladson wanted a judge to make a ruling exonerating the men because, as he put it, “it was the right thing to do,” but he wanted it on legal grounds, though rules on old cases are hard to overcome.

The four were pardoned by the state in 2019, but a pardon, generally, implies guilt and a confession. But this was a case of “executive grace” based on a miscarriage of justice.

Finally, Gladson got the break he needed when they found a pair of pants belonging to Irvin that were still in evidence with the Lake County Clerk of Courts.

The prosecutor at trial intimated that “smears” on the pants was semen. The pants were never tested, though the item could have been tested at the time. To make matters worse, unknown to the defense, a doctor who examined the woman could not find any evidence of rape on the victim.

Gladson had the trousers tested, and there was no semen. That, and the fact that trial transcripts are missing, provided the legal basis for his motion.

At the press conference, Gladson said he recently swore in six new prosecutors. It was George Washington who started the tradition of oaths, he said, making each official responsible to the people they serve. Gladson said he gave each one a copy of the Constitution as a reminder of the laws they are to uphold.

Gladson said McCall, Futch and Hunter were “disguised as keepers of the peace and masquerading as ministers of justice, disregarded their oaths, and set in motion a series of events that forever destroyed these men, their families and a community.”

Relatives, praised Gladson, King, and Corsair for their work, calling it “courageous.”

“This country needs to come together,” said Aaron Newson, Thomas’ nephew.

In a statement provided to the Daily Commercial, Corsair applauded Gladson’s efforts to exonerate the men and said that a full exoneration was something he’s dreamed about since publishing his book.

“Thankfully, voices crying out from the grave have finally been heard,” Corsair said. “I only wish that Greenlee, Irvin, Shepherd and Thomas were alive to see their names cleared.”

In a remarkable display of showmanship, King had a surprise at the press conference when he introduced Thurgood Marshall Jr.

Marshall described his father, who became a legend as the NAACP’s lawyer, as a “storyteller” who talked about his heroes.

“His heroes were his clients,” he said. “I’m in the presence of his heroes.”

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: It’s over: Groveland Four win full posthumous exoneration in Florida