Groveland Four

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The Groveland Four (or the Groveland Boys) were four men, Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin, who were falsely accused of rape in Lake County, Florida, USA, in 1948.

Greenlee, Shepherd and Irvin were arrested shortly after the accusation was made by Norma Padgett. Ernest Thomas fled Lake County the following morning. He was tracked down by a posse days later, 200 miles 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]

NAACP attorney Franklin Williams reported that all three surviving suspects stated, independently of the others, that they were beaten by Lake County deputies. Shepherd and Greenlee told FBI agents that they confessed to stop the beatings. Irvin, despite the beatings, never confessed. 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 to prosecute, but a reluctant Phillips was unable to secure indictments on the deputies.[2]

The prosecution, fearing that a higher court would reverse any guilty verdicts, never introduced the forced confessions into evidence in the trial. There is a lot of uncertainty regarding whether a rape actually took place at all. 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, who drew his pistol and began firing. The shooting took place on a dark country road just outside of Umatilla, Florida. Both prisoners were shot 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 that it would look like an escape attempt. Irvin then 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. Still, Irvin survived, and the FBI later found a bullet buried in the ground beneath Irvin's blood spot, seemingly supporting Irvin's version of the killing.[1] Regardless, a coroner's jury, made up of many of McCall's friends, cleared the sheriff of any wrongdoing.

Irvin was retried in Marion County, Florida. Thurgood Marshall led the defense team and Irvin was again found guilty, after he refused a deal from the prosecutor and Governor Fuller Warren which would have spared him from the electric chair if he pleaded guilty to raping Norma Padgett. Irvin refused, emphatically stating that he would not lie by admitting to rape. He was once again sentenced to death 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 and died while visiting Lake County in 1970.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 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. 
  2. ↑ Gary Corsair (1 March 2004). The Groveland Four: The Sad Saga of a Legal Lynching. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4140-7243-2. Retrieved 8 July 2012. 

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