Florida HB 6523: Relief/Jane Doe/School Board of Miami-Dade County

Bill Text

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HB 6523 2026

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb6523-00
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

A bill to be entitled 1
An act relating to compensation of the descendants of 2
Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and 3
Ernest Thomas; providing that certain facts are found 4
and declared to be true; providing that a sum is 5
appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to the 6
Department of State for specified relief; providing 7
that specified persons are ineligible for further 8
compensation; providing an effective date. 9
10
WHEREAS, on July 16, 1949, a 17-year-old white woman and 11
her estranged husband reported to police that they had been 12
attacked and that she had been raped by four black men after the 13
car that she and her husband were riding in broke down on a 14
rural road outside Groveland, in Lake County, and 15
WHEREAS, despite the lack of physical evidence in the case 16
and the established alibis of the accused, Charles Greenlee, 17
Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas, the four men 18
were presumed guilty, and 19
WHEREAS, Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd, both World War II 20
veterans, acknowledged that they had stopped by the broken-down 21
vehicle to see if they could assist the couple, but denied any 22
involvement in the alleged rape, and 23
WHEREAS, Mr. Greenlee, who was only 16 years old at the 24
time, and Mr. Thomas denied ever meeting the alleged victim and 25

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HB 6523 2026

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb6523-00
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

her estranged husband, and 26
WHEREAS, after their arrest that evening, Mr. Greenlee, Mr. 27
Irvin, and Mr. Shepherd were severely beaten in the basement of 28
the county jail, and Mr. Greenlee and Mr. Shepherd were coerced 29
into confessing to the crime, while Mr. Irvin refused to admit 30
guilt, and 31
WHEREAS, Mr. Thomas, who fled the county, was shot to death 32
several days later in Madison County by members of a deputized 33
posse of armed men, resulting in more than 400 gunshot wounds, 34
and 35
WHEREAS, the three surviving men, Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, 36
and Mr. Shepherd, were tried and convicted in the case, with Mr. 37
Greenlee sentenced to life imprisonment due to his age and Mr. 38
Irvin and Mr. Shepherd sentenced to death, and 39
WHEREAS, Thurgood Marshall, then executive director of the 40
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, appealed the 41
convictions of Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd to the United States 42
Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned the judgments on 43
April 9, 1951, and ordered a retrial, and 44
WHEREAS, seven months later, in November 1951, while 45
transporting Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd from Florida State 46
Prison in Raiford to Tavares State Prison for a pretrial 47
hearing, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall and Deputy Sheriff 48
James L. Yates shot both men on a dirt road leading into 49
Umatilla, claiming that they had shot the handcuffed men in 50

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HB 6523 2026

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb6523-00
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

self-defense when the two tried to escape, and 51
WHEREAS, Mr. Shepherd died at the scene as a result of his 52
wounds, but Mr. Irvin, who pretended to be dead, survived and 53
accused the sheriff and his deputy of attempted murder, but no 54
charges were ever brought against the officers, and 55
WHEREAS, despite Mr. Irvin having been retried and 56
convicted a second time of the crime and sentenced to death, his 57
sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1954 by then-Governor 58
LeRoy Collins, who was not convinced of Mr. Irvin's guilt, and 59
WHEREAS, in 1970, while visiting Lake County, Mr. Irvin, 60
who had been paroled 2 years earlier by then-Governor Claude 61
Kirk, was found dead in his car, and, while Mr. Irvin's death 62
was officially attributed to natural causes, Thurgood Marshall 63
reportedly doubted the circumstances surrounding Mr. Irvin's 64
death, and 65
WHEREAS, Mr. Greenlee, who was paroled in 1962 after 66
serving 12 years in prison, died in April 2012 at the age of 78, 67
and 68
WHEREAS, in 2017, the Legislature unanimously adopted House 69
Concurrent Resolution 631 acknowledging the grave injustices 70
perpetrated against Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, Mr. Shepherd, and 71
Mr. Thomas, apologizing to each of them and their families, and 72
urging the Governor and the Cabinet to perform an expedited 73
clemency review of their cases for the purpose of granting the 74
men full pardons, and 75

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HB 6523 2026

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
hb6523-00
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S

WHEREAS, on January 11, 2019, Governor DeSantis issued full 76
pardons, which were unanimously approved by the Board of 77
Executive Clemency, t