Florida man cleared of rape and murder convictions after 37 years in prison [View all]
Source: The Guardian
After 37 years behind bars, a Florida man was formally cleared on Monday of a 1983 rape and murder which DNA evidence proved he did not commit.
Robert DuBoise was convicted at a trial that relied on a testimony from an unreliable jailhouse informant and faulty bite-mark analysis. He was released from prison last month.
On Monday, a hearing before Hillsborough county judge Christopher Nash resulted in an order wiping away the convictions and life sentence, and removing DuBoise from the state sex offender registry.
"This court has failed you for 37 years," Nash said during the remote hearing. "Today, it has finally succeeded."
DuBoise, 55, was convicted in the 1983 murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams, who was raped and beaten while walking home from her job at a Tampa mall. He was sentenced to death, then re-sentenced to life.
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The exoneration was a result of cooperation between prosecutors and the Innocence Project, which works to free wrongly convicted prisoners. Susan Friedman, the Innocence Project lawyer representing DuBoise, said he maintained his innocence on Death Row and often in solitary confinement in six Florida prisons.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/14/robert-duboise-exonerated-37-years-prison
OMG!
The work of the innocence project is amazing and so needed!
Gratitude.
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