Current Events > Man wrongly served 37 years for murder and Rape to be freed

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UnlikedMonkey
08/27/20 11:35:02 AM
#1:


Robert DuBoise was convicted on bite-mark testimony, but newly discovered DNA excludes him as an attacker

During 37 years in prison for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Tampa, Robert DuBoise never stopped trying to prove his innocence. When he was first arrested in 1983, he willingly submitted to a dental examination, telling police: I want to do it and get it over with. Ill prove to you I did not bite that girl.
But DuBoise was convicted and sentenced to death. The Florida Supreme Court later reduced his sentence to life.
Finally, the state began listening to his claims that authorities had the wrong man. Earlier this month, the rape kit from the 1983 attack was discovered in a medical examiners office, and DNA was extracted and tested. Late last Thursday, the Hillsborough County prosecutors office received the results: DuBoise was excluded as an attacker. A person of interest has been identified through the DNA and is now being investigated.
The prosecutors, guided by years of research from the Innocence Project, sent the case to a panel of experts who all agreed: DuBoise was wrongly convicted. And on Wednesday, six days after the DNA test results were received, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren filed a motion to immediately reduce DuBoises sentence to time served, hoping to have him freed from prison by a judge on Thursday.
This is painful and tragic, but its the truth, Warren said. When you tell the truth, justice is done. For 37 years, we had an innocent man locked up for a crime that he did not commit, while the real perpetrator was never held accountable for this horrific crime. I apologize to Mr. DuBoise on behalf of the entire criminal justice system.
DuBoise, 55, incarcerated at Hardee Correctional Institution in Bowling Green, Fla., was not available for comment. When he got the call Monday from his attorneys, he was overjoyed, said the Innocence Projects Susan Friedman, who handled the case with local support from Seth Miller of the Innocence Project of Florida. He told me it was like waking up from a nightmare. Remember, he was on death row at one point.

DuBoise was convicted of killing 19-year-old Barbara Grams in August 1983 as she walked home from work in central Tampa. The case against DuBoise hinged on two things: bite-mark evidence, now widely discredited as a scientific means of identification, and testimony from a jailhouse informant, a strategy also believed to be frequently misused by police and prosecutors.

The bite-mark evidence was presented by dentist Richard R. Souviron, who also testified about bite marks in the trial of serial killer Ted Bundy. But an expert who reviewed the evidence in the DuBoise case now believes that the mark on Gramss cheek was not even a bite mark.
Souviron has acknowledged that he has overstated the certainty of bite-mark matches in court testimony over the years, as science has determined that many bite patterns can be similar, that bites in skin may not be an exact capture of a bite pattern and that peoples bite patterns change over time.

Souviron is still a practicing dentist in Florida and still offers his testimony in cases. He said he and a dental expert for the defense both thought the mark on Gramss cheek was a bite mark. Souviron also said he hoped his testimony did not wrongly convict DuBoise.
I hope not, Souviron said in a telephone interview. God I hope not. If hes innocent, he deserves to be out.
Souviron lauded the Innocence Project for raising the scientific bar on dental testimony and said dental experts no longer conclude a mark matches to a reasonable degree of dental certainty, as he did at DuBoises trial in 1985. That has been changed to say we cannot eliminate that person. He said dentists can no longer definitively match teeth patterns with bite marks in most cases.
We cant do that, Souviron said. Its not right, unless you have a bite mark like in the Bundy case, which he said was clearly identifiable as coming from the notorious serial killer.
Warren said in a news conference that after he started a conviction review unit in late 2018 he received 250 petitions seeking reviews. Among those, DuBoise is the 20th person to be exonerated, Warren said. Conviction integrity units have been launched in prosecutors offices throughout the country in recent years, leading to hundreds of exonerations, including 165 in 2018 alone.

After Grams was killed, police began taking teeth impressions of numerous people in the Tampa area, using wax. DuBoise, then 18, submitted to that process. Police said they supplied those wax impressions to Souviron, who told them that DuBoise was a match. Court records show that police then obtained a search warrant to obtain a more lasting impression of DuBoises teeth but that he voluntarily cooperated.
Souviron told the police DuBoise again was a match. DuBoise was charged with murder and sexual battery.
After his arrest, DuBoise spent time in the Hillsborough County jail with a man named Claude Butler. Butler claimed that DuBoise told him that two other men had killed Grams by beating her in the head, while DuBoise raped her.
Authorities said Butler was in jail facing trial with a possibility of multiple life sentences for kidnapping, armed robbery and battery on a law enforcement officer. Instead, the Innocence Project found, after Butler cooperated with police, he received a five-year sentence. Once the trial was over, Hillsborough County prosecutors asked a judge to release Butler immediately, and he was freed after 16 months. The men Butler claimed DuBoise had named as the actual killers were never prosecuted.
His testimony had significant inconsistencies, Warren said, and more importantly, the new DNA evidence clearly refutes his testimony. He named three men who were supposedly involved in the rape and murder, and the DNA does not match any of them.
After Souviron and Butler testified against DuBoise, a jury convicted him and sentenced him to life in prison. But Circuit Judge Harry Lee Coe III overrode the jury and sentenced DuBoise to death in 1985. In 1988, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the jurys sentence was appropriate for someone who was not accused of being the actual killer and ordered Coe to resentence DuBoise to life.
Warren said he had spoken with Gramss family. For 37 years, her family was given false closure on a false story, Warren said. I spoke to them and apologized to them. He said they did not want to speak publicly.
The Innocence Project took on DuBoises case in 2018, Friedman said, and submitted it to the Hillsborough conviction review unit in September 2019 after digging into the jailhouse informant, Butler. Friedman noted that DuBoise first filed a motion seeking DNA testing in 2006 but was told the evidence had been destroyed in 1990.
Robert constantly said to us: What about the DNA? What about the DNA? Friedman said. He knew that would prove his innocence and the question would be over. When I told him they found the [rape kit] slides, he was so happy he would finally be cleared.
Warren said an investigation was ongoing looking at the person of interest developed as a major contributor to the DNA found on the victim. He said the person was not a threat to the public but declined to elaborate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2020/08/26/prosecutors-move-release-florida-man-they-say-wrongly-served-37-years-murder/

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Blightzkrieg
08/27/20 11:36:01 AM
#2:


UnlikedMonkey posted...
bite-mark testimony,
Literally pseudoscience

Fuck this shit

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R1masher
08/27/20 11:38:04 AM
#3:


medulla oblongata ?

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Garioshi
08/27/20 11:39:40 AM
#4:


This is why the death penalty is bad

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3PiesAndAFork
08/27/20 11:42:23 AM
#5:


And this is why the death penalty is not a thing is most 1st world countries. Still sucks that he had 37 years of his life that he can never get back just ripped from him.

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EmbraceOfDeath
08/27/20 11:44:55 AM
#6:


Oh good, they gave him an apology. That will certainly compensate him for 37 years of wrongful imprisonment.

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Simon_Gruber
08/27/20 11:47:54 AM
#7:


So an innocent man lost his whole adult life, a woman who was murdered and her family never got justice and a killer(s) are still out there somewhere. Fucking terrible.

I wish they could punish the cops, prosecutors and judge who let this shit happen could be punished but I'm sure they're all retired or dead by now.
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MC_BatCommander
08/27/20 11:49:39 AM
#8:


Bite mark testimony? That sounds like the most flimsy form of evidence I have ever heard of, and they fucking put a guy away for 37 years based on it.

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Blightzkrieg
08/27/20 11:53:02 AM
#9:


MC_BatCommander posted...
Bite mark testimony? That sounds like the most flimsy form of evidence I have ever heard of, and they fucking put a guy away for 37 years based on it.
They use a lot of voodoo garbage in order to convict people. Sometimes called the CSI effect, though in this case it seems to predate that.

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Everyonedies
08/27/20 11:55:42 AM
#10:


Guys, it wasn't just the bite-mark evidence. Some guy he was with in prison also said that DuBoise told him he did it. Why would another person in prison lie?

Authorities said Butler was in jail facing trial with a possibility of multiple life sentences for kidnapping, armed robbery and battery on a law enforcement officer. Instead, the Innocence Project found, after Butler cooperated with police, he received a five-year sentence. Once the trial was over, Hillsborough County prosecutors asked a judge to release Butler immediately, and he was freed after 16 months.

Oh, that's why...

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MC_BatCommander
08/27/20 11:58:42 AM
#11:


Everyonedies posted...
Guys, it wasn't just the bite-mark evidence. Some guy he was with in prison also said that DuBoise told him he did it. Why would another person in prison lie?

Authorities said Butler was in jail facing trial with a possibility of multiple life sentences for kidnapping, armed robbery and battery on a law enforcement officer. Instead, the Innocence Project found, after Butler cooperated with police, he received a five-year sentence. Once the trial was over, Hillsborough County prosecutors asked a judge to release Butler immediately, and he was freed after 16 months.

Oh, that's why...

So fucked. That guy deserves to be thrown back in prison for lying

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Guide
08/27/20 12:04:16 PM
#12:


They just wanted to close the case, not figure it out. Charge the people responsible.

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Simon_Gruber
08/27/20 12:13:38 PM
#13:


Everyonedies posted...
Guys, it wasn't just the bite-mark evidence. Some guy he was with in prison also said that DuBoise told him he did it. Why would another person in prison lie?

Authorities said Butler was in jail facing trial with a possibility of multiple life sentences for kidnapping, armed robbery and battery on a law enforcement officer. Instead, the Innocence Project found, after Butler cooperated with police, he received a five-year sentence. Once the trial was over, Hillsborough County prosecutors asked a judge to release Butler immediately, and he was freed after 16 months.

Oh, that's why...


So an innocent man lost his whole adult life, a woman who was murdered and her family never got justice and a killer(s) are still out there somewhere AND A GUY WHO PROBABLY SHOULD BE IN JAIL WAS LET OUT. Fucking terrible.

I wish they could punish the cops, prosecutors and judge who let this shit happen could be punished but I'm sure they're all retired or dead by now.
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Into_The_LOL
08/27/20 12:17:43 PM
#14:


Will the real perp come forward?
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Tyranthraxus
08/27/20 12:20:10 PM
#15:


We need to stop accepting the testimony of criminals.

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MC_BatCommander
08/27/20 12:31:45 PM
#16:


Into_The_LOL posted...
Will the real perp come forward?

Story says he's "not a threat" which means either dead or already in prison is my guess.

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MabusIncarnate
08/27/20 5:34:30 PM
#17:


This is legitimately one of my biggest fears, simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time and spending half my life in a prison cell for doing absolutely nothing wrong. You lose your life, your freedom, you live in fear, and you are innocent. It's terrifying to consider, my heart legitimately goes out to this man. I hope he can find enjoyment and normality in his life going forward.

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Zikten
08/27/20 5:39:07 PM
#18:


Guide posted...
Charge the people responsible.

it's been too long. as is usual in these cases. they act so slowly that usually by the time the person is found innocent, the ones responsible for conviction tend to be long gone
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#19
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Master_Bass
08/27/20 5:39:56 PM
#20:


UnlikedMonkey posted...
Earlier this month, the rape kit from the 1983 attack was discovered in a medical examiners office, and DNA was extracted and tested.
Damn, I know they just let rape kits pile up but to let one sit around since 1983?!

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CADE FOSTER
08/27/20 5:41:31 PM
#21:


he is gonna get money for everyday he was in prison wont make up for the years he lost but still
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Foppe
08/27/20 5:50:09 PM
#22:


1983...
The Nes wasnt even released in NA by then.
The 286 was released one year earlier.
One year before Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Police Academy, Footloose, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

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Tyranthraxus
08/27/20 6:56:45 PM
#23:


Foppe posted...
1983...
The Nes wasnt even released in NA by then.
The 286 was released one year earlier.
One year before Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Police Academy, Footloose, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Thank goodness he didn't have to see Footloose.

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Simon_Gruber
08/28/20 2:49:52 PM
#24:


MabusIncarnate posted...
This is legitimately one of my biggest fears, simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time and spending half my life in a prison cell for doing absolutely nothing wrong. You lose your life, your freedom, you live in fear, and you are innocent. It's terrifying to consider, my heart legitimately goes out to this man. I hope he can find enjoyment and normality in his life going forward.

With how shitty the American Justice system is, that's a very fair thing to have a fear of.
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