A Florida man who has been exonerated of a 1983 rape & murder is now suing the police over his unjust conviction, which was based on a disproven bite mark.
The Florida man who has been acquitted of a 1983 rape and murder case is now claiming for a wrongful conviction based on a disproven bite mark. After long-shelved and untested DNA evidence from a rape kit proved him clear of wrongdoing, 56-year-old Robert DuBoise was released from prison in August 2020. The evidence demonstrated that he was not guilty in the rape and murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams in Tampa, Florida.
On August 19, 1983, Grams was raped and beaten to death while walking home from work at a restaurant. No one else has been charged with her assassination. In the city of Tampa, four police officers and a forensic dentist who testified that a bite mark on Grams’ cheek was from DuBoise, are named as defendants in the federal complaint filed this week by DuBoise’s attorneys.
‘The sole physical evidence linking DuBoise to the victim was a falsified bitemark’
Human Rights Defense Center attorney Daniel Marshall said that the sole physical evidence linking DuBoise to the victim was a falsified bitemark. As per evidence, the victim’s wound was not a human bite mark at all. The lawsuit claims that investigators colluded with jailhouse informants to falsely link DuBoise in the murder and acted improperly in the case. DuBoise had never admitted to any offence and maintained his innocence throughout the investigation.
When DuBoise was released last year, the chief prosecutor said that the victims and their families are denied justice as a result of wrongful convictions. They are entitled to the truth, not a misleading conclusion based on a fabrication. Furthermore, false convictions endanger public safety by incarcerating an innocent person while allowing the criminal to walk free.
Supporters of DuBoise have asked the state Legislature for $1.85 million in compensation, but the claim bill has yet to be passed. When DuBoise was arrested in the murder of Grams, he was just 18 years old.
According to the lawsuit, authorities originally focussed on DuBoise after a gas station worker across the street from where Grams’ body was discovered, told them that three boys named Robert, Bo and Ray had been making a disturbance in the neighbourhood. Even yet, Grams was killed six months later. DuBoise was originally sentenced to death after being found guilty of Grams’ murder. In 1988, his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
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