Crossroads II. Sunday, March 12, 2023 Finally… Exoneration of the Groveland Four. A special two-part series led by Bill Gladson, State Attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit. Ccass will be held in the Session Room and on Zoom.
Please join us for coffee (and on Zoom) at 8:45 and class will begin at 9:00. |
Pardon is not enough. Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas – wrongly accused of raping a white woman in a 1949 case defended by then-NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall – were finally pardoned by Florida’s governor in 2019. The pardon came seven years after the publication of Gilbert King’s book Devil in the Grove about the infamous miscarriage of justice against these men in Lake County, Florida. But a pardon is not enough. The word itself implies forgiveness, not innocence.
Like many people, newly-elected State Attorney Bill Gladson was convinced none of the four were guilty. But fresh evidence was needed in order for the charges to be dropped. Gladson and his team of investigators dug deeply into past records to uncover previously-hidden evidence that proved the Groveland Four’s innocence. In November of 2021, based on stunning new evidence presented by State Attorney Gladson, the charges against all four men were dropped. Please join us for a fascinating two-part presentation of the case, the cover-up and uncovering of evidence, and the ultimate legal efforts that resulted in exoneration of these four innocent men. The class will be led by State Attorney Gladson (see bio at Meet Bill Gladson (sao5.org)), and is open to the community. If you have not read Devil in the Grove, you are encouraged to do so. Here is a link to one of the many articles published at the time of the exoneration: After more than 70 years, 4 Black men wrongly accused of rape have been exonerated : NPR |