Family: Groveland Four needs exoneration
State constitution doesn’t allow Cabinet to issue a formal one
TALLAHASSEE — Family members and relatives of Groveland Four, the AfricanAmerican men charged with the 1949 rape of a white woman in a case that typified the racist injustices of Jim Crow-era Florida, said Tuesday the pardon they received in January is appreciated but a full exoneration is needed.
But the Cabinet can’t grant a formal exoneration, as the state constitution only gives the governor and the Cabinet the power to pardon, commute a sentence or waive fines and fees for convicts.
Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee, Ernest Thomas and Walter Irvin were pardoned of the rape of Norma Padgett, who was 17 in 1949, by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the
Cabinet on Jan. 11, three days after DeSantis took office. But a pardon is for a felon who has committed an offense, while an exoneration would recognize they did not commit the crime, the family members said.
“It is our hope, our prayer that this time around our family members will get full exoneration, which is what we were hoping for at the clemency (board meeting),” said Beverly Robinson, cousin of Samuel Shepherd, at a news conference in the Capitol on Tuesday. “It is time to do this right; do it honorably.”
Groveland Four family members have been calling for action for years. In 2017 the Legislature unanimously passed a resolution apologizing to the men and their families and urging then-Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to issue a pardon. But Scott never took up the issue on the clemency board, leaving it to DeSantis.
“We ask today for the next very important step, which would be exoneration, to acknowledge and appropriately note in history the innocence of the Groveland Four,” said Rep. Geraldine Thompson, DWindermere, who filed the initial legislation in 2015 and 2016 to apologize to the men. She added that she would push for another resolution publicly exonerating the Groveland Four.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who sits on the Cabinet and clemency board, issued a proclamation calling for exoneration, but her office also acknowledged that the state constitution doesn’t grant the clemency board the power to issue a formal exoneration.
Instead, she’s calling for an informal proclamation by the full Cabinet to recognize the Groveland Four never committed the offense.
“A pardon forgives a crime, but an exoneration recognizes innocence,” Fried said. “Our history books should reflect truth: the Groveland Four were accused of crimes they never committed.”
A spokeswoman for DeSantis did not return an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Thompson and Fried said Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office were looking into the cases to see if
the men who were convicted could have their convictions overturned. A spokeswoman for Moody did not return calls and emails Tuesday.
After Padgett told authorities of the incident on July 16, 1949, the four men were identified by police as suspects. Irvin, Shepherd and Greenlee were arrested and beaten by police to force confessions to the crime. Thomas fled, but then-Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, a notorious racist, went after him with a posse of more than 1,000 armed men. Thomas as shot more than 400 times 200 miles away in Madison County. Shepherd and Irvin were later convicted and sentenced to death; Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the convictions and sent them back to lower courts for trial, McCall shot Shepherd and Irvin in 1951 as they were being moved from state prison to Lake County jail. Shepherd died, but Irvin survived. McCall was cleared of wrongdoing.
Irvin was convicted a second time and sentenced to death, but had his term commuted to life in prison by Gov. Leroy Collins in 1955. He was let out of prison on parole in 1968 but found dead a year later.
Greenlee was paroled in 1962. He died in 2012, but his daughter, Carole, spoke of the pain of the incident caused her family. She is 70, and was born near the time of the incident.
“I’m here today in honor of my father,” she said. “State of Florida please … after 70 years, please exonerate the Groveland Four.”