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John —
In October 1983, I was arrested for the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman in Tampa, Florida — a crime I did not commit. The case against me was weak from the start. There were no eyewitnesses, and the only physical evidence was based on unreliable bite mark evidence, but that didn’t matter.
I ended up spending 37 years in prison and was finally exonerated in 2020 after evidence thought to have been destroyed was found and tested for DNA.
Robert DuBoise hugging his mother Myra DuBoise following his release from prison after 37 years on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020 in Bowling Green, Florida. (Image: Casey Brooke Lawson/AP Images for The Innocence Project)
Despite everything I went through and the decades of freedom that the state of Florida took from me, I’m ineligible for compensation under the state’s restrictive law. They’re excluding me from the money I’m owed because of minor non-violent convictions from when I was just 17 years old.
We’ve got to change this law, not just for me, but for so many other Florida exonerees. Since the compensation law was passed in 2008, only five out of the dozens of people exonerated have actually been compensated.
Help us and the Innocence Project of Florida bring awareness to Florida’s restrictive compensation law by sharing my story online with your friends and family.
Thank you so much for your support,
Robert DuBoise
Exonerated 2020
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