After being released from serving over a decade in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, a Florida man was cheated out of enjoying his freedom after a fatal encounter with a sheriff’s deputy.
Leonard Allen Cure, 53, did 16 years for allegedly robbing a Walgreens at gunpoint in 2003, according to the Innocence Project of Florida. The “5’8 Black male with missing teeth” description resulted in Cure being pulled into a lineup and misidentified as the suspect by a witness. Cure had two trials fighting for his innocence, bringing alibis to testify where he was at the time of the robbery and the fact he was rarely seen outside without his teeth implants. Still, the jury found him guilty of armed robbery and aggravated assault, both with a firearm.
Only in 2019 did one of Cure’s many appeal petitions stick and the Innocence Project was contacted by the new Conviction Review Unit (CRU). In 2020, Cure was released on time served and his case was opened for reinvestigation, finding he was not the culprit. By the end of the year, his charges were dropped.
However, on Monday, the new life he was building was brought to a sudden end.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said a Camden County deputy pulled over Cure as he drove along Interstate 95 near the Georgia-Florida line. He got out of the car at the deputy’s request and cooperated at first but became violent after he was told he was being arrested, a GBI news release said.
The agency said preliminary information shows the deputy shocked Cure with a stun gun when he failed to obey commands, and Cure began assaulting the deputy. The GBI said the deputy again tried using the stun gun and a baton to subdue him, then drew his gun and shot Cure when he continued to resist.
It’s unclear why Cure was pulled over in the first place but the GBI said they will conduct an independent investigation into the incident and provide the findings to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.
Last year, another exonerated Black man met the same fate. Christopher Williams was wrongfully convicted of six murders and was exonerated in 2021 after serving three decades in prison, per The Philadelphia Inquirer. He was shot dead on Dec. 16, 2020 but no arrests were made.
Leaving prison is a blessing but the lingering possibility of being sent back or worse still haunts Black men as they reenter society.
“Even when they’re free, they always struggled with the concern, the fear that they’ll be convicted and incarcerated again for something they didn’t do,” said Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida, via AP News.