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3d ago

Florida Senate Advances $4 Million Compensation Bill for Groveland Four Families to Floor

The House companion lacks a funding figure, leaving its path uncertain.

, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, far left, and an unidentified man stand next to Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Charles Greenlee, from left, in this undated photo. The three men along with a fourth were charged with rape in 1949. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a Cabinet granted posthumous pardons Friday, Jan. 11, 2019, to Shepherd, Irvin, Greenlee and Ernest Thomas, the four African-American men accused of raping a white woman in 1949 in a case now seen as a racial injustice. (State Library and Archives of Florida via AP)
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Overview

  • The Senate Appropriations Committee approved SB 694 after adding a $4 million appropriation, or about $1 million per family.
  • The proposal now moves to the full Senate for consideration.
  • The House version, HB 6523, specifies no amount and has not received a committee hearing.
  • Backers frame the payments as restorative justice for the 1949 case involving coerced confessions, a mob killing, and a sheriff’s shooting of two handcuffed men.
  • Florida previously issued a legislative apology in 2017, granted pardons in 2019, and saw a 2021 court order vacate convictions and restore the men’s presumption of innocence.