The events of the case led to serious questions about the arrests, allegedly coerced confessions and mistreatment, and the unusual sentencing following their convictions.
Thomas, Shepherd, Irvin, and Greenlee (then 16) were accused of raping 17-year-old Norma Padgett and assaulting her husband on July 16, 1949, in Groveland, Lake County, Florida.
In 1949, Harry T. Moore, the executive director of the Florida NAACP, organized a campaign against the wrongful conviction of the three African Americans.
It ruled they had not received a fair trial because no evidence had been presented, because of excessive adverse publicity, as well as because black people had been excluded from the jury.
In November 1951, Sheriff Willis V. McCall of Lake County, Florida shot Irvin and Shepherd while they were in his custody and handcuffed together.
McCall claimed they had tried to escape while he was transporting them from Raiford State Prison back to the county seat of Tavares for the new trial.
[6] The Florida Senate quickly passed a similar resolution; lawmakers called on Governor Rick Scott to officially pardon the men.
[15] The Shepherd family moved to Groveland, Florida, where his father achieved ownership of his own farm by clearing and developing former swamp land.
Both men were beaten by police with blackjacks and fists and kicked as they lay on the ground, while being asked if they had picked up a white girl.
Cockcroft, the leader of the riot, revealed the mob's intentions when he told a reporter, "The next time, we'll clean out every Negro section in south Lake County.
[20] He was shot by the posse at least 400 times and died of his wounds;[21] officers reported that Thomas was armed and allegedly reached for a weapon.
An FBI investigation concluded that Lake County Sheriff's Department deputies James Yates and Leroy Campbell were responsible for the beatings, and agents documented the physical abuse with photographs.
[23] Thurgood Marshall, the lead lawyer of the NAACP, pressed the Justice Department and the FBI to initiate a civil rights and domestic violence investigation into the beatings.
Marshall convinced the Justice Department that the beatings violated the men's rights, and the FBI dispatched agents to investigate.
Laboratory analysis of a vaginal smear revealed no spermatozoa present in the vagina, nor any organisms resembling gonococci, which could have been other evidence of sex.
It overturned the convictions of both men based on adverse pre-trial publicity, and remanded the case to the lower court for a new trial.
McCall was transporting Shepherd and Irvin from Raiford State Prison back to the Lake County jail in Tavares when he claimed to have a flat tire.
Alone with the two handcuffed prisoners, McCall pulled down a dirt road to inspect the tire, outside Umatilla, Florida, north of Tavares.
[22] The following morning, at the hospital where he had been taken for treatment, Irvin told FBI agents and reporter Mabel Norris Reese that the shooting was unprovoked.
The FBI later found a bullet buried in the ground beneath Irvin's blood spot that appeared to support his account of the shooting.
[22] A nail found in the front wheel of McCall's car appeared to have caused his claimed "tire trouble" that night.
[22] An all-white coroner's jury, made up of many of McCall's friends, took half an hour to find Shepherd's death justified.
[22] Harry T. Moore, executive director of the Florida NAACP, demanded in 1951 that McCall be indicted for murder following the Groveland rape case, and requested that the governor suspend him from office.
In 2005, a new investigation was launched by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that included excavation of the Moore home to search for forensic evidence.
On August 16, 2006, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist announced his office had completed its 20-month investigation, resulting in the naming of four then suspects—Earl Brooklyn, Tillman Belvin, Joseph Cox and Edward Spivey—all deceased.
[24] After recovering from his shooting wounds, Irvin was tried again after refusing a deal from the prosecutor and Governor Fuller Warren that would have spared him from a death sentence if he pleaded guilty.
Senator Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, filed a proposed resolution (SCR 136) for consideration during the 2016 legislative session to clear the names of Greenlee, Irvin, Shepherd, and Thomas and note the "egregious wrongs" the criminal justice system perpetrated against them.
On January 11, 2019, the Florida Board of Executive Clemency, with newly seated Governor Ron DeSantis at the helm, unanimously agreed to pardon the Groveland Four.
"And that's the amount of time four young men have been wrongly written into Florida history for crimes they did not commit and punishments they did not deserve.
"[29] Norma Padgett, then 86, speaking publicly about the case for the first time since 1952, attended the Clemency Board hearing to make a statement against exoneration, saying:[30] I'm beggin' y'all not to give them pardon because they done it.