Bill > S0694

Introduced Session

An act relating to compensation of the descendants of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas; providing that certain facts are found and declared to be true; providing that a sum is appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of State for specified relief; requiring that a specified percentage of such relief be provided to certain individuals and estates; providing that specified persons are ineligible for further compensation; providing an effective date. WHEREAS, on July 16, 1949, a 17-year-old white woman and her estranged husband reported to police that they had been attacked and that she had been raped by four black men after the car that she and her husband were riding in broke down on a rural road outside Groveland, in Lake County, and WHEREAS, despite the lack of physical evidence in the case and the established alibis of the accused, Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas, the four men were presumed guilty, and WHEREAS, Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd, both World War II veterans, acknowledged that they had stopped by the broken-down vehicle to see if they could assist the couple, but denied any involvement in the alleged rape, and WHEREAS, Mr. Greenlee, who was only 16 years old at the time, and Mr. Thomas denied ever meeting the alleged victim and her estranged husband, and WHEREAS, after their arrest that evening, Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, and Mr. Shepherd were severely beaten in the basement of the county jail, and Mr. Greenlee and Mr. Shepherd were coerced into confessing to the crime, while Mr. Irvin refused to admit guilt, and WHEREAS, Mr. Thomas, who fled the county, was shot to death several days later in Madison County by members of a deputized posse of armed men, resulting in more than 400 gunshot wounds, and WHEREAS, the three surviving men, Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, and Mr. Shepherd, were tried and convicted in the case, with Mr. Greenlee sentenced to life imprisonment due to his age and Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd sentenced to death, and WHEREAS, Thurgood Marshall, then executive director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, appealed the convictions of Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd to the United States Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned the judgments on April 9, 1951, and ordered a retrial, and WHEREAS, seven months later, in November 1951, while transporting Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd from Florida State Prison in Raiford to Tavares State Prison for a pretrial hearing, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall and Deputy Sheriff James L. Yates shot both men on a dirt road leading into Umatilla, claiming that they had shot the handcuffed men in self-defense when the two tried to escape, and WHEREAS, Mr. Shepherd died at the scene as a result of his wounds, but Mr. Irvin, who pretended to be dead, survived and accused the sheriff and his deputy of attempted murder, but no charges were ever brought against the officers, and WHEREAS, despite Mr. Irvin having been retried and convicted a second time of the crime and sentenced to death, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1954 by then-Governor LeRoy Collins, who was not convinced of Mr. Irvin’s guilt, and WHEREAS, in 1970, while visiting Lake County, Mr. Irvin, who had been paroled 2 years earlier by then-Governor Claude Kirk, was found dead in his car, and, while Mr. Irvin’s death was officially attributed to natural causes, Thurgood Marshall reportedly doubted the circumstances surrounding Mr. Irvin’s death, and WHEREAS, Mr. Greenlee, who was paroled in 1962 after serving 12 years in prison, died in April 2012 at the age of 78, and WHEREAS, in 2017, the Legislature unanimously adopted House Concurrent Resolution 631 acknowledging the grave injustices perpetrated against Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, Mr. Shepherd, and Mr. Thomas, apologizing to each of them and their families, and urging the Governor and the Cabinet to perform an expedited clemency review of their cases for the purpose of granting the men full pardons, and WHEREAS, on January 11, 2019, Governor DeSantis issued full pardons, which were unanimously approved by the Board of Executive Clemency, to Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, Mr. Shepherd, and Mr. Thomas, and WHEREAS, on November 22, 2021, the State Attorney’s Office of Lake County filed a motion in the Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial Circuit to dismiss the indictments of Mr. Shepherd and Mr. Thomas and to set aside the convictions and sentences of Mr. Greenlee and Mr. Irvin, which motion was granted, and WHEREAS, the State of Florida recognizes an obligation to equitably redress the injuries, damages, infringement of civil rights, and loss of life that Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Thomas, and their families sustained as a result of the events that transpired in Lake County, NOW, THEREFORE,

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Committee Categories

LaVon Bracy Davis (D)*,  Kristen Arrington (D),  Lori Berman (D),  Mack Bernard (D),  Danny Burgess (R),  Tracie Davis (D),  Nick DiCeglie (R),  Don Gaetz (R),  Ileana Garcia (R),  Shev Jones (D),  Thomas Leek (R),  Ralph Massullo (R),  Debbie Mayfield (R),  Rosalind Osgood (D),  Tina Polsky (D),  Darryl Rouson (D),  Barbara Sharief (D),  Corey Simon (R),  Carlos Smith (D),  Keith Truenow (R),  Tommy Wright (R), 

Other Sponsors (2)

In Messages (on 02/19/2026)

Official Document