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Florida Senate seeks pardon for wrongly accused 'Groveland Four'
Source: Reuters
U.S. | Thu Apr 27, 2017 | 5:21pm EDT
Florida Senate seeks pardon for wrongly accused 'Groveland Four'
By Bernie Woodall | FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.
Florida's Senate on Thursday apologized to the families of four black men wrongly accused of raping a white teenager nearly 70 years ago, and lawmakers called on the state's governor to issue full pardons.
One of the men known as the "Groveland Four," Ernest Thomas, was hunted down by a posse of over 1,000 men and killed as he was shot 400 times, days after the men were accused of abducting and sexually assaulting the 17-year-old girl in 1949 near Groveland, Florida.
The three others were beaten in custody and convicted. Of those, one was shot dead on the way to a retrial. None are alive today.
Renewed interest in the Groveland Four was sparked by the book, “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America" by Gilbert King that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013.
The Florida Senate offered a "heartfelt apology to these victims of racial hatred" in the resolution that passed the chamber unanimously. It asked Republican Governor Rick Scott to issue posthumous pardons.
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Florida Senate seeks pardon for wrongly accused 'Groveland Four'
By Bernie Woodall | FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.
Florida's Senate on Thursday apologized to the families of four black men wrongly accused of raping a white teenager nearly 70 years ago, and lawmakers called on the state's governor to issue full pardons.
One of the men known as the "Groveland Four," Ernest Thomas, was hunted down by a posse of over 1,000 men and killed as he was shot 400 times, days after the men were accused of abducting and sexually assaulting the 17-year-old girl in 1949 near Groveland, Florida.
The three others were beaten in custody and convicted. Of those, one was shot dead on the way to a retrial. None are alive today.
Renewed interest in the Groveland Four was sparked by the book, “Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys and the Dawn of a New America" by Gilbert King that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013.
The Florida Senate offered a "heartfelt apology to these victims of racial hatred" in the resolution that passed the chamber unanimously. It asked Republican Governor Rick Scott to issue posthumous pardons.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-apology-idUSKBN17T36Q