The Florida Senate on Thursday unanimously approved $4 million in compensation to be shared between the families of the Groveland Four.
Under the notorious Sheriff Willis McCall, the four young Black men -- one only 16 at the time -- were wrongfully prosecuted or killed for the alleged rape of a white woman in Lake County in 1949.
The cause of the Groveland Four was advanced by a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Devil in the Grove,” by Gilbert King in 2012. It was pressed forward by African American leaders, including former State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who died last February.
This bill's sponsor is State Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, an Ocoee Democrat elected to fill Thompson's seat.
Bracy Davis said she was born on the very date of the incident but 30 years later. It was a matter, she said, not of coincidence but destiny that her bill could bring closure.
"Let us close this chapter with integrity," Bracy Davis said on the Senate floor. "Let us show the families that we heard them, and let us send a message that in the Florida State Senate, truth still matters. And, Senator Thompson, this is for you."
Bracy Davis recounted the horrific story of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas.
"For decades, the families carried the weight of wrongful convictions, wrongful incarcerations and wrongful death," said Bracy Davis as she made the case for her bill. "Decades of growing up without fathers, without brothers, without sons, Florida has since acknowledged the truth. Senate Bill 694, represents the final step."
The four men are all dead now, after Greenlee died in 2012. The Legislature in 2017 apologized to the men as "victims of a gross injustice," the governor issued full pardons, and a judge in Lake County declared their innocence.
The bill -- Senate Bill 694 -- was sent to the House, where a similar bill has so far made no progress.
