Former Florida Death-Row Prisoner Robert DuBoise Freed After DNA Proves His Innocence

A Florida tri­al court has freed a for­mer death-row pris­on­er after local pros­e­cu­tors said new DNA evi­dence had proven his inno­cence of the rape and mur­der for which he was wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death 37 years ago. 

Based on junk-sci­ence bite-mark evi­dence and false tes­ti­mo­ny from a prison infor­mant, Robert DuBoise (pic­tured with his moth­er, Myra, fol­low­ing his release) was con­vict­ed of rap­ing and mur­der­ing 19-year-old Barbara Grams. The jury unan­i­mous­ly rec­om­mend­ed that DuBoise be sen­tenced to life, but his tri­al judge, Henry Lee Coe III, over­rode their rec­om­men­da­tion and sen­tenced DuBoise to be exe­cut­ed in Florida’s electric chair.

DuBoise was released from the Hardee Correctional Institution in Bowling Green, Florida, August 27, 2020, one day after Hillsborough pros­e­cu­tors and lawyers from the nation­al Innocence Project and the Innocence Project of Florida pre­sent­ed Circuit Judge Christopher Nash with evi­dence of his inno­cence. Working with State Attorney Andrew Warren​’s Conviction Integrity Unit, the par­ties told the court that there was in fact no bite mark and that DNA evi­dence from an untest­ed rape kit exclud­ed DuBoise and impli­cat­ed two other men. 

In February 1988, the Florida Supreme Court over­turned DuBoise’s death sen­tence, rul­ing that the tri­al court should not have over­rid­den the jury’s sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion and direct­ing that DuBoise be resen­tenced to life impris­on­ment. Judge Nash reduced that sen­tence to time served and set a September 14 hear­ing date for the pre­sen­ta­tion of evi­dence to over­turn his conviction.

DuBoise was greet­ed out­side the prison by his moth­er, Myra, his sis­ter, Harriet, and Innocence Project lawyer, Susan Friedman. After hug­ging his moth­er, he spoke to an assem­blage of reporters and cameras. 

“It’s a beau­ti­ful day,” he said.

DuBoise has not yet been offi­cial­ly exon­er­at­ed. That will occur when the charges against him are for­mal­ly dis­missed. Warren said that his office was prepar­ing court papers to com­plete the exoneration process. 

“Wrongful con­vic­tions are con­trary to the very fiber of our sys­tem,” Warren said at a news con­fer­ence fol­low­ing the court’s action. ​“They pun­ish the inno­cent while allow­ing the actu­al per­pe­tra­tor to go free. They erode con­fi­dence and trust in our sys­tem because, when you have a wrong­ful con­vic­tion, it means that we failed to do the most fun­da­men­tal thing we’re sup­posed to do, which is to find the truth.”

“I’m proud that we were able to play a role in free­ing an inno­cent man,” he con­tin­ued. ​“I’m com­fort­ed by know­ing that we’ve pro­vid­ed the truth now to this com­mu­ni­ty, and espe­cial­ly to the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly who were giv­en false clo­sure based on a false sto­ry all these years.”

When the charges are for­mal­ly dis­missed, DuBoise will become Florida’s 30^th death-row exoneree since 1973, the most in the nation. The state has exe­cut­ed 99 pris­on­ers dur­ing that peri­od, or one exon­er­a­tion for every 3.3 executions.

Until 2016, Florida per­mit­ted tri­al judges to impose death sen­tences despite jury rec­om­men­da­tions for life or based on non-unan­i­mous jury votes for death. Including DuBoise’s case in the cal­cu­la­tions, 22 of the 24 Florida exon­er­a­tions for which the jury’s sen­tenc­ing vote is known (91.7%) have been in these cas­es. No state any longer per­mits a judge to over­ride a jury’s rec­om­men­da­tion for life. Alabama still allows tri­al judges to impose the death penal­ty based upon a jury’s 10 – 2 or 11 – 1 vote for death. Indiana and Missouri per­mit a judge to deter­mine the sen­tence if jurors can­not reach a unan­i­mous sentencing verdict.

Florida’s last death-row exon­er­a­tion was in the case of Clifford Williams, Jr., who was freed in March 2019 after serv­ing 42 years for a mur­der he did not com­mit. DuBoise will be the 171^st doc­u­ment­ed death-row exon­er­a­tion in the U.S. since 1973.