PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Camden County Sheriff’s Office released dashboard and body camera video showing the deputy pulling Cure over and ordering him to put his hands on the back of his pick-up truck and then behind his back. Cure appeared to comply until he learned that the deputy intended to arrest him for speeding and reckless driving, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the sheriff’s office. The deputy fired a stun gun at Cure and a fight ensued, with Cure grabbing the deputy by the neck and pushing his head backward, the video shows. The deputy shot the stun gun twice at Cure and hit him with a baton before shooting him with a gun at point-blank range. Cure’s family said the man’s time behind bars likely played a role in his deadly altercation with the deputy. “I believe there were possibly some issues going on, some mental issues with my brother,” Michael Cure told The Associated Press of his sibling. “I know him quite well. The officer just triggered him, undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement.” Michael added of his brother: “He really should be alive. The officer hit him with his baton and he tased him, twice as a matter of fact. But he did not have to shoot him.”
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STORY: "'My soul aches': Mother speaks out after exonerated son is killed by Georgia police," by NBC Reporter Char Adams, published on October 19, 2023. (Char Adams is a reporter for NBC BLK who writes about race.);
SUB-HEADING: "The Georgia officer who fatally shot Leonard Cure has been placed on administrative leave."
GIST: "Leonard Cure’s mother held a photo of her son as she somberly addressed the crowd at a news conference Wednesday, two days after a Georgia deputy fatally shot Cure during a traffic stop.
“My heart is disconnected and my soul aches,” Mary Cure said during the event.
Leonard Cure died Monday during an altercation with a Camden County sheriff’s deputy on Interstate 95 near the Georgia-Florida border. The death came three years after he served 16 years in prison for an armed robbery conviction he was exonerated of.
The 53-year-old had been visiting his mother in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and was returning home in metro Atlanta. Mary Cure recalled the last conversation she had with her son early Monday morning, before they parted ways.
“He said, ‘I love you and I’ll see you soon,’ that’s the last I heard from him,” she said.
“I was uneasy every time he left, because I was like, ‘Will he get a traffic stop? Is he going to be a victim of that?’” the mother said. “From the time that he was released, he was never set free,” she continued. “Lived in constant fear … is this going to be the day that they’re gonna lock him up, beat him up, or kill him? I lived with that. That is torture.”
Camden County Sheriff’s Office released dashboard and body camera video showing the deputy pulling Cure over and ordering him to put his hands on the back of his pick-up truck and then behind his back.
Cure appeared to comply until he learned that the deputy intended to arrest him for speeding and reckless driving, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the sheriff’s office.
The deputy fired a stun gun at Cure and a fight ensued, with Cure grabbing the deputy by the neck and pushing his head backward, the video shows.
The deputy shot the stun gun twice at Cure and hit him with a baton before shooting him with a gun at point-blank range.
Cure’s family said the man’s time behind bars likely played a role in his deadly altercation with the deputy.
“I believe there were possibly some issues going on, some mental issues with my brother,” Michael Cure told The Associated Press of his sibling. “I know him quite well. The officer just triggered him, undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement.”
Michael added of his brother: “He really should be alive. The officer hit him with his baton and he tased him, twice as a matter of fact. But he did not have to shoot him.”
The officer involved has been placed on administrative leave, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office told NBC News. When asked whether the office believes the shooting was justified, the spokesman said that will be determined by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
In 2020, Cure was the first person exonerated by Broward County’s Conviction Review Unit.
He’d been wrongfully convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to life in prison in 2004. He was freed three years ago, after the Innocence Project of Florida, which supports wrongfully imprisoned people, convinced authorities to review the case.
It was determined, through examining an ATM receipt and other evidence, that Cure could not have been involved in the act because he was miles away when the robbery occurred. The Broward County prosecutor’s office concluded that Cure did not commit the crime.
Since being freed, Cure held down a job, reconnected with his family and was in the process of buying a home when he was killed, according to the Innocence Project. Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida, said during the news conference that the psychological trauma of being unjustly incarcerated for 16 years may have prompted Cure to fear the arrest.
“He, like many of my other clients, their biggest fear is that at a moment’s notice there’s going to be law enforcement on the other side of that front door or at a traffic stop who is going to — without cause, for something they didn’t do — send them back right where they worked so hard to get out of, and I can only imagine that must’ve been what he was thinking during this traffic stop,” Miller said during Wednesday’s news conference.
“He was a good person who deserved to get home on Monday,” Miller said.
The entire story can be read at:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/-soul-aches-mother-speaks-exonerated-son-killed-georgia-police-rcna121274
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Read civil rights attorney Ben Crump's response to the police video showing killing of exoneee Leonard Cure at the link below. (GPB NEWS: NPR: Reporter Benjamin Payne: (Benjamin Payne is the Savannah-based reporter for GPB, where he covers Coastal Georgia.)
GIST: " The attorney representing the family of wrongfully convicted exoneree Leonard Cure is condemning a sheriff's deputy for how he handled a traffic stop that turned deadly. GPB's Benjamin Payne reports.
PHOTO CAPTION: Leonard Cure, who in 2020 was exonerated of an armed robbery conviction in Florida, was killed in a combative traffic stop in Georgia in October 2023.
GIST: "Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump is condemning a Camden County sheriff's deputy after the release of police video showing a traffic stop Monday that resulted in the killing of 53-year-old Leonard Cure.
“It is just a tragic situation that there wasn't an attempt to deescalate the matter from the beginning by the law enforcement officer,” said Crump, who has been retained by Cure's family. “There are things in the video that are very troubling from both perspectives.”
The footage — which includes one body camera video and two dash camera videos — shows Staff Sgt. Buck Aldridge, who is white, yelling at Cure, who is Black, immediately after Aldridge exits his patrol vehicle. Cure was sitting in his truck, which Aldridge said had been going 100 miles per hour on northbound Interstate 95 between Kingsland and Woodbine.
After initially not complying with Aldridge's command to exit the truck and put his hands on the back of the truck, Cure complied. Aldridge then told him that he was under arrest and ordered that he put his hands behind his back and that he would be stun-gunned if he did not comply.
“Those words — that you're going to be arrested and go to jail — after being wrongfully convicted for all those years, we believe triggered him,” Crump said of Cure, who had been wrongfully sentenced to more than 16 years in Florida prison for armed robbery, before being exonerated in 2020.
Cure did not comply with Aldridge's command to put his hands behind his back; instead, he raised his left arm to the sky, at which point Aldridge stun-gunned Cure.
Cure endured the weapon's shock for about five seconds before flailing his arms at Aldridge. The two fought for about 25 seconds along the shoulder of the interstate, with Aldridge striking Cure with a baton and Cure covering Aldridge's face with his hand.
Aldridge then fired his handgun at Cure, at which point Cure dropped to the ground. It is unclear from the videos whether Aldridge fired his gun again.
Paramedics tried to resuscitate Cure at the scene. He was later pronounced dead.
“I've seen up-close confrontations between citizens and law enforcement that didn't result in a person being killed,” said Cure's brother Wallace Cure.
“[Aldridge] got out yelling at him,” Cure's brother Michael Cure said. “Yelling commands and screaming at him. And my brother was compliant. He was quite compliant. And there was no attempt to deescalate — none whatsoever. When he tased him, that exacerbated the situation and my brother did turn and get a bit physical.”
Michael Cure said that he believed “there were possibly some issues going on — some mental issues — with my brother,” including post-traumatic stress disorder from his wrongful incarceration. “The officer triggered him — undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement."
Michael Cure added that Aldridge “should have known that there may have been some issues” with his brother.
“When you see escalation met with escalation from both individuals, that never leads to anything good,” Crump said.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the case, said that it would turn over its findings from the investigation to Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins.
As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aldridge previously served for five years as a Kingsland Police Department officer, until he was fired in 2017 for violating policies on the use of necessary and appropriate force, as well as on/ off-duty conduct. Aldridge was hired by the Camden County Sheriff's Office less than one year later.
Cure was exonerated from his armed robbery conviction with the help of the Innocence Project of Florida, a legal organization that works to free wrongly convicted individuals.
“From talking to many clients,” said the group's executive director, Seth Miller, “their biggest fear is that on the other side of that door or at a traffic stop, they're going to be sent right back to where they were, where they worked so hard to get out of, for something they didn't do."
https://www.gpb.org/news/2023/10/20/civil-rights-attorney-ben-crump-responds-police-video-showing-killing-of-exonerated
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater’s attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, “Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it’s the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-1234880143/
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