PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Grams was attacked one night in August 1983, sexually assaulted and beaten. Detectives seized on what a medical examiner identified as a bite mark, canvassing for samples. DuBoise, a local teenager, provided one. The now-discredited analysis of that sample, plus the words of a jailhouse informant, convinced a jury to send him to prison. In 2018, the Innocence Project petitioned the conviction review unit in Hillsborough County to examine the case."
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STORY: 'Tampa council approves $14 million to settle wrongful conviction lawsuit over 1983 murder," by Christopher Spata and Dan Sullivan, published by The Tampa Bay Times, on February 10th the 5, 2024. (Christopher Spata is an enterprise reporter covering Floridians and culture. Dan Sullivan is a criminal justice reporter.)
PHOTO CAPTION: "Robert DuBoise at a news conference on Sept. 14, 2020, following a hearing to exonerate him 37 years after he was arrested for a 1983 murder."
GIST: "The Tampa City Council unanimously passed a resolution Thursday awarding $14 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Robert DuBoise, who spent 37 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 1983 murder.
New DNA testing in 2020 indicated two other men with no connection to DuBoise were responsible for the murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams. DuBoise, now 59, was freed soon after.
A year later, DuBoise filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the retired police detectives who investigated the case and a forensic dentist who testified that DuBoise’s teeth matched a bite mark on the victim.
DuBoise did not attend the City Council meeting. He still lives in Tampa, the city where he grew up and was arrested for the murder at 18.
All six attending council members requested to speak after the vote, each expressing sorrow for what DuBoise endured in prison and missed on the outside.
“That’s a lifetime,” said council chairperson Guido Maniscalco, who was born in 1984, a year after DuBoise’s arrest. “This is something that you can’t imagine what it’s like unless you’re in those footsteps.”
“Mr. DuBoise gave the majority of his life for this,” said council member Lynn Hurtak. “This is the least we can do.”
Andrew Warren, the state attorney for Hillsborough County when DuBoise was released, spoke in favor of the settlement money during public comments earlier in the day. He called DuBoise’s conviction “a terrible injustice.”
Warren touted the conviction review unit started under his tenure, aimed at identifying and righting wrongful convictions.
“DNA evidence proved Robert’s innocence,” Warren said. “And it led us to the two people who actually committed that crime.”
“I have no idea how you put a price on 37 years of freedom that’s been taken away,” he continued.
The day took a slight political detour as Warren took a shot at State Attorney Suzy Lopez, whom he called “illegally appointed” and whom he criticized for “effectively disbanding” the conviction review unit.
Lopez, in a statement, fired back by accusing Warren of using DuBoise’s moment “to take gratuitous political potshots.” She added that the conviction review unit’s director “left for a new opportunity this week,” and that other attorneys are reviewing incoming cases from prisoners who claim innocence in the interim. What’s next for the unit, Lopez did not specify.
The city’s resolution calls for the $14 million to be paid in installments from an insurance fund over three years to DuBoise and the Chicago-based civil rights law firm Leovy & Leovy.
City Council members unanimously backed the resolution in the absence of member Bill Carlson. Several thanked Warren for leading the effort to create the conviction review unit.
In a statement Monday, DuBoise’s legal team wrote that no amount of money could ever compensate him for his lost decades.
“The tragedy of his wrongful conviction is that it could and should have been prevented,” they wrote.
Tampa police Chief Lee Bercaw also issued a statement, noting that the department has made major strides in its investigations. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor echoed his sentiments.
“The credibility of our criminal justice system requires scrupulous accuracy and adherence to the highest investigation standards,” she said in a statement. “We hope this settlement helps Mr. DuBoise in his healing.”
Grams was attacked one night in August 1983, sexually assaulted and beaten. Detectives seized on what a medical examiner identified as a bite mark, canvassing for samples. DuBoise, a local teenager, provided one.
The now-discredited analysis of that sample, plus the words of a jailhouse informant, convinced a jury to send him to prison. In 2018, the Innocence Project petitioned the conviction review unit in Hillsborough County to examine the case.
The city has denied individual wrongdoing by the police officers involved, but attorneys noted other wrongful convictions nationwide have resulted in settlements well over DuBoise’s $14 million."
The entire story can be read at:
tampa-council-approves-14-million-settle-wrongful-conviction-lawsuit-over-1983-murder
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https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=5807
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. 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/
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/
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-12348801
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