ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried and State Rep. Geraldine Thompson are both calling for a full exoneration of the "Groveland Four."

• Two state leaders call for "Groveland Four" to be fully exonerated
• The 4 men were wrongly accused of rape in 1949
• They were posthumously pardoned in January
• RELATED: Lake County OKs Groveland Four Monument

Four African American men — Ernest Thomas, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, and Charles Greenlee — were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in Groveland, Florida, in 1949.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and cabinet members posthumously pardoned the men in January.

Now, Fried and Thompson want it to go a step further with an acknowledgement of innocence.

In a Tuesday press release, Thompson said, "Family members of the Groveland Four have waited roughly 70 years for justice in this case...”

"Exoneration of the Groveland Four will bring us closer to righting the wrong done to these men,” Thompson added in the release.

Exoneration can only happen after a formal review by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.