ORLANDO, Fla. — The descendants of the Groveland Four will receive $4 million in compensation after funding was included in Florida’s newly signed state budget, marking another milestone in one of the state’s most notorious miscarriages of justice.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the $114 billion budget Monday, setting aside the money for the families of the four Black men who were wrongfully accused of raping a white woman in Lake County in 1949.
State Sen. Lavon Bracy Davis, who sponsored the compensation measure, said the funding represents the culmination of years of work to restore justice for the families.
“I was hopeful that it was coming,” Bracy Davis said.
The legislation builds on efforts championed by the late Geraldine Thompson, who spent years seeking justice for the men: Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin.
The case became one of the most infamous examples of racial injustice during the Jim Crow era.
In 1949, Norma Padgett accused the four men of rape. Thomas was killed by a sheriff’s posse before he could stand trial. Shepherd and Irvin were convicted by all-white juries and sentenced to death. After the Groveland Four case reached the Supreme Court of the United States, the convictions of Shepherd and Irvin were overturned because of unfair trial proceedings. While they were being transported for a new trial, then-Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall shot both men, killing Shepherd and seriously wounding Irvin. Greenlee, who was 16 at the time, was sentenced to prison and later paroled.
The state later acknowledged the injustice.
In 2019, Florida’s Cabinet granted the Groveland Four posthumous pardons despite objections from Padgett, who publicly maintained her accusation.
Two years later, a judge formally vacated the convictions after prosecutors concluded the men had been wrongfully prosecuted.
During that proceeding, previously obtained recordings from the grandson of the original prosecutor added to longstanding questions about the case. Broward Hunter, the grandson of former State Attorney Jesse Hunter, said his grandfather believed the accusations were driven by fear of Sheriff McCall.
“He knew that this was not a rape case,” Hunter said in the recording.
For the families, the compensation represents more than financial relief.
Carol Greenlee, daughter of Charles Greenlee, has said her father chose forgiveness despite the injustice he endured.
“My father demonstrated forgiveness for me,” she said. “He didn’t even talk negative about anybody.”
Bracy Davis said while the four men are no longer alive, their families have continued to carry the burden of the false accusations for generations.
“They’re no longer with us. Their families are still dealing with this — this badge of being lied on, their family member being lied on,” she said.
Family members eligible to receive the compensation have already been identified, and a trust has been established to distribute the funds.
The compensation does not erase what happened more than 75 years ago, but it marks another chapter in Florida’s ongoing effort to acknowledge and address one of the darkest episodes in the state’s history.
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