Leonard Allen Cure, a 53-year-old African American man who was wrongfully imprisoned in Florida for over 16 years, was fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop on Monday, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
The GBI is currently investigating the incident.
Cure's exoneration case was handled by the Innocence Project of Florida. Seth Miller, the executive director of the organization, expressed his devastation upon hearing the news from Cure's family. "I can only imagine what it's like to know your son is innocent and watch him be sentenced to life in prison, to be exonerated and ... then be told that once he's been freed, he's been shot dead," Miller said.
According to the GBI, a Camden County deputy stopped Cure on Interstate 95 near the Georgia-Florida border. Initially, Cure cooperated with the deputy but became violent when informed of his impending arrest. The GBI's preliminary report indicates that the deputy used a stun gun and a baton on Cure when he failed to comply with commands and began assaulting the deputy. When these measures failed to subdue Cure, the deputy shot him. The reason for the traffic stop remains undisclosed.
The GBI's findings will be submitted to the district attorney for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit, which includes Camden County, as is customary in Georgia for officer-involved shootings.
Miller, who could not comment specifically on Cure's case, mentioned his experience representing numerous individuals who were wrongfully convicted. "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," he said.
Cure was convicted in 2003 for an armed robbery at a drug store in Dania Beach, Florida. His conviction was the result of a second jury's decision after the first jury was unable to reach a verdict. Due to his prior convictions for robbery and other crimes, Cure was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2020, the Broward State Attorneys Office's Conviction Review Unit requested a judge to release Cure from prison. The review team discovered "troubling" evidence that Cure had solid alibis that were previously overlooked, and there was no physical evidence or credible witnesses to place him at the crime scene. An independent panel of five local attorneys agreed with these findings.
Cure was released in April 2020 after his sentence was modified, and his conviction and sentence were vacated in December 2020. "Im looking forward to putting this situation behind me and moving on with my life," Cure told the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the time.
In June, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a claims bill granting Cure $817,000 in compensation for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment, along with educational benefits. According to Miller, Cure, who resided in a suburb of Atlanta, received the compensation in August.
Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor described Cure as intelligent, humorous, and kind-hearted. "After he was freed and exonerated by our office, he visited prosecutors at our office and participated in training to help our staff do their jobs in the fairest and most thorough way possible," Pryor said in a statement to the Sun Sentinel.
Cure frequently called Assistant State Attorney Arielle Demby Berger, the head of the Conviction Review Unit, to offer encouragement and support for "the important work of justice," Pryor added.
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