Incoming Florida gov wants pardon review for Groveland Four
Source: Associated Press
Mike Schneider, Associated Press
Updated 6:11 pm CST, Thursday, December 20, 2018
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) Florida's incoming governor wants to consider a pardon for four young African-American men who were wrongly accused of raping a white woman nearly 70 years ago.
Republican Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis said in a statement Thursday he would make the cases of the Groveland Four a priority at the first meeting of the Florida Cabinet next month. The cases are considered among the greatest miscarriages of justice during Jim Crow-era Florida.
"Seventy years is a long time," DeSantis said. "And that's the amount of time four young men have been wrongly written into Florida history for crimes they did not commit and punishments they did not deserve."
Florida's outgoing governor Rick Scott and other Republicans on the state clemency board have refused to take up the pardon request, even though the Florida Legislature last year formally apologized and asked for a pardon.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Florida-s-DeSantis-wants-pardon-review-for-13482159.php
radical noodle
(7,997 posts)Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King. There is no question they were not guilty because the "crime" never happened.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)The cynic in me figures Desatanist is hoping for a crawling text at the end of the movie praising him for pardoning these people so he can say "lookit meeeeeee! I'ma good guy!"
he won't fool me though.
radical noodle
(7,997 posts)The horrors those four experienced is unbelievable. I'm sad to say I live very near where it took place.
OriginalGeek
(12,132 posts)Not too far... A friend from work just bought land out there.
I'll have to see how they treat it but i'm leaning towards just catching the cliff notes.
SunSeeker
(51,504 posts)I mean, I am really happy for the victims' families, and this is long overdue. But I can't help but to feel cynical.
This is the same Governor-elect who intends to slow walk the enfranchisement of felons who have paid their debt to society, even though an overwhelming majority of Floridians voted to end felon disenfranchisement.
Judi Lynn
(160,444 posts)JPK
(649 posts)He's trying to slow foot the felon voting rights enactment in total contradiction to the vast majority of Florida voters.
cstanleytech
(26,224 posts)you can spray all the air freshener you want but a piece of shit is still going to be a piece of shit as the freshener just masks the smell for a short time.
hatrack
(59,566 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,145 posts)Doesn't really move my overall opinion of DeSantis as a whole, but can't say that it's not the right thing to do just because he's doing it.