Florida SB 694: Vote-by-mail Ballots

Bill Text

694 
Compensation of the Descendants of Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas 
2026-02-16T11:29:20Z 
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, etc. 
Committee Substitute 2 
2026 
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General Bill 
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 Florida Senate - 2026 CS for CS for SB 694 

 By the Committees on Appropriations; and Judiciary; and Senators 
 Bracy Davis, Smith, Osgood, Berman, Davis, Arrington, Bernard, 
 Leek, Gaetz, Sharief, Mayfield, DiCeglie, Massullo, Rouson, 
 Jones, Simon, Wright, Burgess, Truenow, and Garcia 

 576-02811-26 2026694c2 
 1 A bill to be entitled 
 2 An act relating to compensation of the descendants of 
 3 Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and 
 4 Ernest Thomas; providing that certain facts are found 
 5 and declared to be true; providing that a sum is 
 6 appropriated from the General Revenue Fund to the 
 7 Department of State for specified relief; requiring 
 8 that a specified percentage of such relief be provided 
 9 to certain individuals and estates; providing that 
 10 specified persons are ineligible for further 
 11 compensation; providing an effective date. 
 12 
 13 WHEREAS, on July 16, 1949, a 17-year-old white woman and 
 14 her estranged husband reported to police that they had been 
 15 attacked and that she had been raped by four black men after the 
 16 car that she and her husband were riding in broke down on a 
 17 rural road outside Groveland, in Lake County, and 
 18 WHEREAS, despite the lack of physical evidence in the case 
 19 and the established alibis of the accused, Charles Greenlee, 
 20 Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Ernest Thomas, the four men 
 21 were presumed guilty, and 
 22 WHEREAS, Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd, both World War II 
 23 veterans, acknowledged that they had stopped by the broken-down 
 24 vehicle to see if they could assist the couple, but denied any 
 25 involvement in the alleged rape, and 
 26 WHEREAS, Mr. Greenlee, who was only 16 years old at the 
 27 time, and Mr. Thomas denied ever meeting the alleged victim and 
 28 her estranged husband, and 
 29 WHEREAS, after their arrest that evening, Mr. Greenlee, Mr. 
 30 Irvin, and Mr. Shepherd were severely beaten in the basement of 
 31 the county jail, and Mr. Greenlee and Mr. Shepherd were coerced 
 32 into confessing to the crime, while Mr. Irvin refused to admit 
 33 guilt, and 
 34 WHEREAS, Mr. Thomas, who fled the county, was shot to death 
 35 several days later in Madison County by members of a deputized 
 36 posse of armed men, resulting in more than 400 gunshot wounds, 
 37 and 
 38 WHEREAS, the three surviving men, Mr. Greenlee, Mr. Irvin, 
 39 and Mr. Shepherd, were tried and convicted in the case, with Mr. 
 40 Greenlee sentenced to life imprisonment due to his age and Mr. 
 41 Irvin and Mr. Shepherd sentenced to death, and 
 42 WHEREAS, Thurgood Marshall, then executive director of the 
 43 NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, appealed the 
 44 convictions of Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd to the United States 
 45 Supreme Court, which unanimously overturned the judgments on 
 46 April 9, 1951, and ordered a retrial, and 
 47 WHEREAS, seven months later, in November 1951, while 
 48 transporting Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd from Florida State 
 49 Prison in Raiford to Tavares State Prison for a pretrial 
 50 hearing, Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall and Deputy Sheriff 
 51 James L. Yates shot both men on a dirt road leading into 
 52 Umatilla, claiming that they had shot the handcuffed men in 
 53 self-defense when the two tried to escape, and 
 54 WHEREAS, Mr. Shepherd died at the scene as a result of his 
 55 wounds, but Mr. Irvin, who pretended to be dead, survived and 
 56 accused the sheriff and his deputy of attempted murder, but no 
 57 charges were ever brought against the officers, and 
 58 WHEREAS, despite Mr. Irvin having been retried and 
 59 convicted a second time of the crime and sentenced to death, his 
 60 sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1954 by then-Governor 
 61 LeRoy Collins, who was not convinced of Mr. Irvin’s guilt, and 
 62 WHEREAS, in 1970, while visiting Lake County, Mr. Irvin, 
 63 who had been paroled 2 years earlier by then-Governor Claude 
 64 Kirk, was found dead in his car, and, while Mr. Irvin’s death 
 65 was officially attributed to natural causes, Thurgood Marshall 
 66 reportedly doubted the circumstances surrounding Mr. Irvin’s 
 67 death, and 
 68 WHEREAS, Mr. Greenlee, who was paroled in 1962 after 
 69 serving 12 years in prison, died in April 2012 at the age of 78, 
 70 and 
 71 WHEREAS, in 2017, the Legislature unanimously adopted House 
 72 Concurrent Resolution 631 acknowledging the grave i