Former Florida Death-Row Prisoner with Innocence Claim Released Pending Outcome of Federal Appeal

More than thir­ty years after a Florida judge sen­tenced him to death fol­low­ing an 8 – 4 sen­tenc­ing rec­om­men­da­tion by an all-white jury, Crosley Green (pic­tured) has been freed. 

Citing Green’s age and health risks relat­ed to con­tin­ued incar­cer­a­tion dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, Judge Roy B. Dalton of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on April 7, 2021, ordered Green’s imme­di­ate release while a fed­er­al appeals court con­sid­ers pros­e­cu­tors’ appeal of the dis­trict court’s July 2018 deci­sion over­turn­ing his conviction. 

“The Court deter­mines that, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the length of time to resolve Petitioner’s appeal, … Petitioner would be sub­stan­tial­ly injured since the Court has already reversed his con­vic­tion and ordered a new tri­al,” Dalton wrote. ​“Additionally, the pub­lic has a strong inter­est in the release of a pris­on­er whom the Court has found to be incar­cer­at­ed in vio­la­tion of the Constitution. The Court finds that the pub­lic inter­est weighs in favor of grant­i­ng release pending appeal.”

Green was sen­tenced to death in 1990 for the 1989 mur­der of Charles ​“Chip” Flynn. An all-white jury con­vict­ed Green, who is Black. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked him to the crime, and the one wit­ness to the crime was the victim’s ex-girl­friend, who first respon­ders ini­tial­ly iden­ti­fied as the like­ly per­pe­tra­tor. The two police offi­cers who respond­ed to the crime scene told pros­e­cu­tors they believed the ex-girl­friend had killed Flynn, but pros­e­cu­tors with­held their notes from Green’s defense team, deny­ing him access to poten­tial­ly excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence. All three wit­ness­es who tes­ti­fied that Green had con­fessed to the mur­der lat­er recant­ed their state­ments, say­ing they had been coerced by prosecutors. 

In 2007, the tri­al court over­turned Green’s death sen­tence, find­ing that tri­al coun­sel had failed to inves­ti­gate court records that would have dis­proven the prosecution’s claim that Green had a pre­vi­ous con­vic­tion in New York for a crime of vio­lence. The Florida Supreme Court upheld that rul­ing in 2008 and Green was resen­tenced to life in 2009.

His pro bono coun­sel from the Washington, D.C. law firm Crowell & Moring con­tin­ued their efforts to over­turn Green’s con­vic­tion. On July 20, 2018, Judge Dalton over­turned Green’s con­vic­tion, rul­ing that the pros­e­cu­tors’ sup­pres­sion of excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence vio­lat­ed due process. Florida pros­e­cu­tors appealed that rul­ing. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit heard argu­ment on the case in March 2020 but has not yet issued a decision.

“After fight­ing to prove his inno­cence for more than three decades, Crosley Green is final­ly free and will be with his fam­i­ly once again,” said Keith J. Harrison, a part­ner at Crowell & Moring. ​“We are extreme­ly grate­ful to Judge Roy Dalton, Jr. for grant­i­ng Mr. Green’s imme­di­ate release as he awaits his rul­ing in the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals. There was nev­er a shred of cred­i­ble evi­dence that Crosley Green com­mit­ted this crime. We have fought relent­less­ly since 2008 to prove his inno­cence, and we have faith that jus­tice will prevail.” 

Green’s case fits a pat­tern in mod­ern Florida death-row inno­cence cas­es. From the 1970s until 2016, Florida per­mit­ted tri­al judges to impose death sen­tences despite the votes of one or more jurors in favor of a life sen­tence. DPIC’s February 2021 Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic reviewed the 25 Florida death-row exon­er­a­tions under that statute for which the jury votes are known. In 23 of those exon­er­a­tions (92%), one or more jurors had vot­ed for life. Nearly sev­en­ty per­cent (16 of 23) of those wrong­ful cap­i­tal con­vic­tions involved defen­dants of color. 

Before his Eleventh Circuit hear­ing in 2020, Green said he had giv­en up on anger. ​“I was an angry man when I first got to death row,” he said. ​“I was, I was angry. But in ​’93, it hit me and from that year until now I just stay with the Lord, you know? So, I’m not angry any­more. Anytime that I can wake up and pray to the good Lord above, you know, I can’t be angry. And my days go by easily.”