He was jailed for 40 years for a crime he did not commit: now he is suing justice for $ 1.85 million | the Chronicle

Robert DuBoise was 18 when he was sentenced to death. Now 56 years old, he is a free man and pursues those who took him to prison. The case of the American became known when, last August, DuBoise was exonerated from the crime for which he had spent 37 years in prison.

“A free man for the first time since his teenage years, Mr. DuBoise must now rebuild his life after nearly 40 years in prison.“

The man was convicted of the death of Barbara grams, 19-year-old girl who was raped and beaten to death on her way home from work August 19, 1983. The case had little evidence, but researchers clung to a bite that the alleged perpetrator had left on the victim’s cheek.

On the trail, officers in charge of the case took bite samples from all suspects, including DuBoise. The tests were carried out in beeswax, a method that has not been accepted to identify tooth marks in murder cases. DuBoise’s defense, which filed its complaint this week, claimed the material was used “just because another officer in the Tampa Police Department was running a separate honey business“.

Despite this, the mold was sufficient to sentence DuBoise to the death penalty, conviction which in 1988 was converted to life imprisonment. 37 years have passed until DNA evidence in rape kit from never-evaluated case they showed that the accused was innocent of Grams’ crime, which remains open to this day.

Robert DuBoise sues the city of Tampa, four police investigators and a forensic dentist

His innocence has been proven following a review of the case by the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office and the Innocence Project, an American organization that works nationwide to free wrongly convicted prisoners.

The trial of Robert DuBoise, sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit

In federal lawsuit filed this week, DuBoise lawyers name defendants the city of Tampa, four police investigators and a forensic dentist who testified that a bite mark on Grams’ cheek was from DuBoise, based on the faulty beeswax mold.

“The only physical evidence implicating Mr. DuBoise it was fabricated proof with “bite marks” that would have likened Mr. DuBoise to an injury to the victim’s body. In reality, the victim’s wound was not a human bite at all“he wrote in the request Daniel marshall, lawyer for the Human Rights Defense Center.

As evidence to support the allegations, the defense continued with a speech given by Richard Souviron, the accused dentist, to the Tampa Police Chiefs, where he said: “If they tell me the guy who did it I’ll go to court and say the guy who did itSouviron, gained notoriety as an expert after testifying at the trial of Ted bundy, and continues to practice to this day.

In addition to targeting the expert, defense lawyers argue that the detectives themselves conspired with prison informants to falsely implicate DuBoise, and are guilty of misconduct.

As they wrote in the lawsuit, investigators focused on DuBoise after an employee at a gas station across from where Grams was found told police that three “boys“called Robert, Bo and Ray had been”to cause problems“. It was six months before Grams was assassinated..

With the cause started, DuBoise seeks $ 1.85 million in compensation for damage suffered during his nearly four decades behind bars. The verdict will be left to the Florida legislature, which is responsible for ratifying legislation that would empower the state to grant such relief.

“A free man for the first time since his teenage years, Mr. DuBoise must now rebuild his life after nearly 40 years in prison.“says the trial. “Mr. DuBoise was deprived of all the basic pleasures of human experience, which all free men enjoy by right“.