Man wrongfully imprisoned for 37 years to receive $14 million from the city of Tampa

A man who spent 37 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of the 1983 rape and murder of a Tampa woman will receive $14 million in a settlement with the city of Tampa, it said Thursday.

The man, Robert DuBoise, 59, was just 18 when he was arrested in connection with the murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams, who was beaten to death and whose body was discovered Aug. 1 behind a dentist's office on the city's north side. 19, 1983.

Mr. DuBoise was convicted in 1985 of first-degree murder and attempted sexual assault after a weeklong trial in which a jailhouse informant claimed he was guilty, and prosecutors argued that Mr. DuBoise's teeth matched what they describe as a bite wound on the chest. the victim's cheek. He was initially sentenced to death, but three years later the Florida Supreme Court changed that sentence to life in prison.

In August 2020, Mr. DuBoise was released after new DNA evidence came to light that exonerated him and implicated two other men. charged later when killing. The following year, Mr. DuBoise filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Tampa, four former police officers and the forensic dentist who had testified against him.

On Thursday, the Tampa City Council unanimously approved the settlement, which is to be paid in three installments over three years.

“I'm just grateful,” Mr. DuBoise said in an interview Thursday, adding that he hoped his case could serve as an example to others who had been wrongly convicted. He said he hoped “they get justice and can move on without having to spend the rest of their lives fighting the system that has already wronged them.”

According to the lawsuit, the dentist, Dr. Richard Souviron, “knowingly” fabricated the bite mark evidence in collaboration with the police officers, requesting that an impression of Mr. DuBoise's teeth be made with beeswax, despite the fact that this is not the case. used for making such molds because beeswax is too soft to hold its shape. The officers, the indictment alleged, made no effort to find the real perpetrator but instead conspired to “gather additional false evidence” against Mr. DuBoise, forcing informants to testify against him.

Dr. Souviron said in a statement that he never fabricated any evidence and did not conspire with the officers to convict Mr. DuBoise. Neither he nor his attorney could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

According to settlement documents, the city denied allegations of “intentional misconduct” by the Tampa Police Department or its former officers, who said in statements that they never coerced a jailhouse informant to testify against Mr. DuBoise. In his own statement, the jailhouse informant said that Mr. DuBoise had never confessed to the rape or murder, and that he had been threatened by the officers into giving false testimony, the documents show. City Council member Luis Viera said in a statement Thursday that through the settlement, the City Council was “doing what it could do to right this disturbing injustice.”

Tampa Police Department Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement Thursday that advances in training and technology since then have increased the “capacity to conduct investigations, ensuring greater accuracy and due process for all.” One of the four former police officers has now died. The lawyer for the three other officers could not immediately be reached for comment on Thursday evening.

Mr. DuBoise's attorney, Gayle Horn, said that despite claims, courts continued to admit the kind of “junk science” that left her client wrongly imprisoned for nearly four decades.

“Prosecutors continue to rely on junk science, and juries continue to convict based on it without knowing any better,” she said. “It is a real problem that continues to plague the criminal justice system. I hope and am optimistic that we can and must do better.”