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Groveland Four

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Student7 (talk | contribs) at 19:00, 23 October 2015 (→Push for Exoneration: rm good faith entry. Needs citation at best, but really just media-centric now. If law passes, govenor apologizes, that's another matter. "Attempts" don't count). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Groveland Four (or the Groveland Boys) were four young African-American men: Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin, who were accused of raping a 17-year-old white woman in Lake County, Florida, USA, in 1948. Thomas was killed as a suspect by a posse after leaving the area; Greenlee, Shepherd and Irvin were beaten while in jail to coerce confessions, but Irvin refused to confess falsely. The three survivors were each convicted at trial by an all-white jury; Greenlee was sentenced to life because he was only 16 at the time of the event; the other two were sentenced to death. A retrial was ordered by the United States Supreme Court after hearing their appeals, led by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

In 1951 Sheriff Willis McCall shot both Shepherd and Irvin in November 1951 while they were in his custody, saying they tried to escape. Shepherd died on the spot, and Irvin told investigators the sheriff shot them in cold blood. At the second trial, Irvin was convicted again and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to life by the governor in 1955. In 1968 he was paroled.

Events

In 1948, a 17-year-old white woman, Norma Padgett, accused four young black men in Groveland, Florida of raping her. They were Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin. Shepherd and Irvin were both veterans of World War II.

Greenlee, Shepherd and Irvin were arrested shortly after the young woman accused them. Thomas fled Lake County the following morning. He was tracked down by a posse days later, 200 miles (320 km) away, and shot and killed. Officers reported that Thomas was armed and reached for his weapon. The NAACP claimed that the posse had never intended to arrest Thomas, but to kill him. According to the coroner's inquest, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall was at the scene when Thomas was shot.[1]

Main article: Groveland Case

NAACP attorney Franklin Williams reported that each of the three surviving suspects stated, independently of the others, that he was beaten by Lake County deputies. Shepherd and Greenlee both told FBI agents that they confessed to the crime to stop the beatings. Despite the beatings, Irvin never confessed and continued to maintain his innocence. The FBI later concluded that Lake County deputies James Yates and Leroy Campbell had violated the civil rights of the Groveland Boys and urged U.S. Attorney Herbert Phillips of Florida to prosecute, but a grand jury did not return indictments of the deputies.

The prosecution, fearing that a higher court would reverse any guilty verdicts, never introduced the forced confessions into evidence in the trial. There is much uncertainty regarding whether Padgett was raped. Two of the defendants, Shepherd and Irvin, claimed they were in Eatonville, Florida, drinking that night. Greenlee was apparently nowhere near the other defendants on that night and insisted that he had never met Shepherd and Irvin before. The physician who examined Norma Padgett was not called to the witness stand by the prosecution, and Judge Truman Futch would not permit the defense to call him as a witness. Sheriff McCall's deputies were accused of manufacturing evidence in this case to win a conviction.[1] Both Shepherd and Irvin were sentenced to death, and Greenlee was given a life sentence.

In November 1951, after NAACP special counsel Thurgood Marshall had the verdict overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Sheriff McCall was transporting Shepherd and Irvin from Raiford State Prison to the Lake County jail when he claimed to have a flat tire. Alone with the two prisoners, McCall pulled down a dirt road to inspect the tire. He claimed that Shepherd asked to relieve himself, and when the two prisoners, cuffed together, got out of the car, they attacked McCall. He drew his pistol and shot at them. The shooting took place on a dark country road just outside of Umatilla, Florida. He shot each prisoner three times. Irvin survived by playing dead, but Shepherd was killed instantly.

The following morning, Irvin told the FBI and reporters that the shooting was unprovoked, and that McCall staged the scene so to look like an escape attempt. Irvin shocked reporters by claiming that Lake County Deputy James Yates arrived at the scene, saw that Irvin was still breathing, and fired one last shot through Irvin's neck. Irvin survived. The FBI later found a bullet buried in the ground beneath Irvin's blood spot, seemingly supporting Irvin's version of the killing.[1] An all-white coroner's jury, made up of many of McCall's friends, cleared the sheriff of any wrongdoing. (At this time, most blacks had been disfranchised by state laws since the turn of the 20th century. They were therefore excluded from juries in the state.

Irvin was retried in Marion County, Florida. Thurgood Marshall led the defense team from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Irvin was found guilty. He had refused a deal from the prosecutor and Governor Fuller Warren to spare him from a death sentence if he pleaded guilty to the rape. Irvin refused, emphatically stating that he would not lie by admitting to rape. He was sentenced to death again by Judge Futch. In 1955, the newly elected Governor LeRoy Collins commuted Irvin's sentence to life in prison, stating that neither trial proved conclusively that Irvin was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Irvin was paroled in 1968; he died in 1970 while visiting Lake County.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Gilbert King (6 March 2012). Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-209771-2. Retrieved 8 July 2012.

Further reading

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