White woman who wrongfully accused ‘Groveland Four’ of rape in Jim Crow-era South dies at 92

(CNN) — A White woman who falsely accused four Black men of rape in the Jim Crow-era South in 1949 has died at the age of 92.

Norma Padgett Upshaw claimed the four men – Ernest Thomas, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Walter Irvin – sexually assaulted her in Groveland, Florida, about 30 miles west of Orlando, when she was 17. The group, who came to be called the “Groveland Four,” became the faces of the case considered one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in Jim Crow-era Florida.

Padgett Upshaw died of natural causes on July 12 in Taylor County, Georgia, according to records filed at the probate court. The Washington Post was first to report her death.

There were doubts about Padgett Upshaw’s testimony from the onset, but in the era of Jim Crow, a jury convicted the men without evidence of a crime. Circuit Court Judge Heidi Davis in Lake County, Florida, granted the state’s motion in November 2021 to posthumously dismiss the indictments against Thomas and Shepherd and vacated the convictions of Greenlee and Irvin.

In 2019, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued full posthumous pardons to the Groveland Four.

“For seventy years, these four men have had their history wrongly written for crimes they did not commit. As I have said before, while that is a long time to wait, it is never too late to do the right thing,” DeSantis said in the statement at the time.

Padgett Upshaw claimed her car broke down on the night of July 16, 1949, in Groveland, and said the four men stopped and raped her.

After being arrested, Shepherd, Greenlee and Irvin were tortured until police were able to elicit a confession from two of them. Thomas managed to escape custody and was killed after a manhunt.

Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison.

Shepherd and Irvin received the death penalty. While being transported from county jail for a retrial, the sheriff shot them both and claimed self-defense. Shepherd died at the scene and Irvin survived by playing dead. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison.

After the court hearing during which the judge officially exonerated the four men in 2021, Greenlee’s daughter Carol Greenlee stood in front of cameras at an emotional news conference.

“I would not hate, but I will love and embrace all of those who did not know at the time that my father was a caring and loving and compassionate person that did not rape anybody. I stand here today to say thank you,” she said.

CNN’s Dianne Gallagher & Amir Vera contributed to this report.

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