PARRAMORE, Fla. — Newly elected Gov. Ron DeSantis described the Groveland Four case as a miscarriage of justice.
- Son of Paul Perkins Sr. reflects on dad's work on Groveland Four defense
- Perkins worked alongside Thurgood Marshall, other key players
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It was nearly 70 years ago inside a courtroom where a young Orlando attorney became a key player alongside future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and others in the trial of a lifetime.
Maitland attorney Paul Perkins Jr. has grown up hearing all about the case.
"It was impossible anywhere in Central Florida for those guys to get a fair trial, and the Supreme Court said as much,” Perkins Jr. said.
He remembers happier times as he showed us the actual building in the historic Parramore community where his father Paul Perkins Sr.'s law office was located when he and his brother were just kids.
His dad was one of the attorneys, right alongside Thurgood Marshall and others, who were all charged with representing Walter Irvin and Samuel Shepherd during their re-trial after being sentenced to death row by an all-white jury.
But the experience was bitter sweet for all involved. Despite the lack of any physical evidence, four black men were accused in the summer of 1949 of raping a white teen — 17-year-old Norma Padgett from Groveland.
All of the Groveland Four said they were brutally beaten and tortured while in custody.
Ernest Thomas was gunned down by an angry mob before he could even be arrested. Perkins Jr. says the terror and violence the defendant's suffered deeply impacted his dad.
"He was really emotionally distraught after they'd been shot, and I heard them from his friends after he died. They said the only time they ever saw my father cry was when he found out,” he said.
Perkins Jr. says his father would be overwhelmed with joy knowing all four were finally fully pardoned.
He has no doubt documentaries like The Groveland Four and the Groveland Four's families insistence for years that their loved ones names be cleared helped immensely, and it gives him hope for the future.
“It just shows how people can come together on a common goal and pursue justice, and eventually it comes,” Perkins Jr. said.
Florida's Department of Law Enforcement’s investigation into clearing the men's names through the court system to fully exonerate them continues, but an FDLE representative wouldn't comment further.
There is also a plan in the works to install a monument in honor of the Groveland Four in front of the historic Lake County Courthouse in Tavares.