The state of Florida has officially exonerated four African American men falsely accused of raping a white woman near Groveland, Florida, in 1949. Two of the so-called Groveland Four were brutally murdered as a result of the false accusations. The case is now seen as a racially charged miscarriage of justice emblematic of the Jim Crow South.

Carol Greenlee is the daughter of Charles Greenlee, who was sentenced to life in prison over the false accusations. She spoke to Democracy Now! in January 2019, just after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis granted posthumous pardons. 

Carol Greenlee: “My nieces, my nephews, my brothers, my son all carried this cloud over them. It has lifted that cloud from being carried by innocent children, innocent family members. And I feel that a chain has been broken. It felt like the door of justice swung open and the nightmare ended, of torture, waking up at night to the pain of what had happened to my father.”