Prisoners find unusual ally in fight for freedom

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — South Florida prosecutors who fight crime and push for convictions are now also flipping the script: They’re working to clear innocent people.

In the past 18 months, Broward and Palm Beach County state attorneys opened “Conviction Review Units” that seek to wipe out wrongful convictions. Miami-Dade prosecutors since 2003 have run a “Justice Project” that has exonerated over three dozen people convicted of felonies.

This is a chance for prisoners to be totally cleared and set free because there’s now proof they weren’t the real bad guys. It’s not about helping people win a new trial or reducing the length of a sentence.

“This is about pure innocence,” said Dave Aronberg, soon to start his third term as Palm Beach’s top prosecutor. “There’s new evidence, or there’s a new witness, or something that clears the person entirely.”

It follows a national trend in the past two decades of prosecutors deciding it helps their brand to open “conviction integrity” divisions to reassure the public that the true criminals are locked up.

“It is something that appeals to voters,” said Barbara O’Brien, a professor at Michigan State University’s College of Law. “People have begun to question the reliability of the criminal justice system in a way they haven’t before.”

While innocence groups and defense lawyers have long fought to free the wrongfully convicted, it wasn’t until 2003 that district and state attorneys across the nation began dedicating efforts toward the cause.

Statistics show that these projects have led to at least 457 people getting their convictions removed across the U.S. This is according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a joint operation by Michigan State and the University of California.

Florida prosecutors have established five conviction review units, all since 2018: Orange, Duval, Hillsborough, Broward and Palm Beach counties. So far, four men have been set free after serving decades in prison based on the fresh review of evidence.

Miami-Dade County’s program, while not included in the registry, began with a focus on using DNA technology to help clear felons, said Ed Griffith, spokesman for State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. Now it functions like a conviction review unit, taking requests from inmates who have exhausted all appeals.

Prosecutors a few years ago began investigating allegations of police misconduct in the village of Biscayne Park from 2013 to 2014. The review led to 38 felony convictions being vacated and charges against the former police chief and three officers, Griffith said.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office opened its conviction review unit in 2019, formalizing what it called a “long-term practice of reviewing and investigating claims of innocence.”

One of the first petitions came from Leonard Cure, who previously lost four appeals and bids for trial judges to grant post-conviction relief concerning his 2004 armed robbery conviction.

An investigation determined he was falsely linked to a 2003 holdup of a Walgreen’s in Dania Beach. At the time he was a previously convicted felon, and that contributed to his receiving a life sentence the following year.

Broward’s conviction review team said it found “troubling” revelations that Cure, now 51, had solid alibis that were previously disregarded and no physical evidence or solid witnesses to put him at the scene. An independent review panel of five local lawyers concurred with the findings.

Assistant State Attorney Arielle Demby Berger said it was in “the best interest of justice” to overturn Cure’s conviction and spring him from a cell after more than 16 years.

“These cases are rare and take a lot of time,” she said. “This is exactly why conviction review units and the opportunity for an exoneration are so crucial to ensuring justice.”

On Dec. 14, the case was finally closed when Broward Circuit Judge John J. Murphy III vacated Cure’s conviction and sentence.

“I’m looking forward to putting this situation behind me and moving on with my life,” Cure, who now lives in Port St. Lucie, said in a statement to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

More may follow Cure out of lockdown. His petition was one of 40 received so far by the state attorney’s office, said spokeswoman Paula McMahon.

And they want more. Felons and their representatives can download a petition from the website, sao17.state.fl.us.

“No one,” the office says, “benefits when an innocent person is convicted and the real offender is not held accountable.”

Leaders of the Innocence Project of Florida, which represented Cure through the process, said the conviction review units across the state are a welcome “innovation.”

“Traditionally the role of the prosecutor has practically played out as one to preserve convictions, regardless of the facts,” said Seth Miller, the organization’s executive director.

Now the public can have “confidence that prosecutors are there to do justice, not just to convict people at all costs,” he said. “It gives us a willing partner, an open ear within the prosecutor’s office who’s going to be able to take a look at these cases in an objective way.”

Miller says these reviews can also show prosecutors where they may improve their handling of current cases, to “prevent wrongful convictions before they happen.”

None of this means prosecutors will be any less zealous about racking up convictions.

“When you wrongfully convict someone, that means you’ve left the right person on the street that continues to commit crimes,” Miller explained. “So naturally it doesn’t take anything away from the normal prosecutorial role to punish people for crimes. Rather, I think it bolsters it.”

Palm Beach County’s Aronberg says he first became aware of the stain of wrongful convictions in 2008, when he served in the state Senate.

Aronberg then sponsored a bill to give $1.25 million as compensation to Alan Crotzer, who spent 24 years on 1981 rape, kidnapping and robbery convictions out of Tampa. DNA testing ultimately vindicated him.

“The evidence was clear he didn’t do it,” Aronberg said. “That was something that really affected me.”

In June, he announced the creation of a conviction review unit and put veteran prosecutor Alexcia Cox in charge. She says they’ve received 15 petitions so far from people found guilty of murders, sex crimes, home invasions and other felonies.

But it’s too early to tell if any of them deserve to be exonerated.

Claims of innocence must be supported by a sworn statement and new evidence or information that can be checked out. A witness who recanted. An alibi has come forward. DNA wasn’t tested. A cop involved in the case was arrested.

Petition forms and complete rules can be downloaded from the state attorney’s website, sa15.org.

“The key challenge is to be able to stand up for the wrongfully convicted … without opening the floodgates to thousands of frivolous claims based on technicalities, not innocence,” Aronberg said.

He says the office has a strong interest not only in correcting its mistakes, but also ensuring that prosecutors can avoid punishing innocent people in the future.

“Convicting an innocent person is an injustice,” Aronberg said. “It needs to be remedied immediately, not covered up, And that’s our job.”