Killing of Leonard Cure

Last updated
Killing of Leonard Cure
Leonard Cure.jpg
FDOC mug shot of Leonard Cure c. 2020
DateOctober 16, 2023 (2023-10-16)
Location Camden County, Georgia, U.S.
Type Police shooting
ParticipantsLeonard Cure and Sheriff's Deputy Buck Aldridge
DeathsLeonard Cure, 53
Inquiries Georgia Bureau of Investigation

On October 16, 2023, Leonard Cure, a 53-year-old black American man, was fatally shot during a physical struggle by Sheriff's Deputy Buck Aldridge in Camden County, Georgia, after being pulled over for speeding. Cure had been exonerated in 2020 after being wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in Florida in 2003. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

Leonard Cure (November 23, 1969 [3] – October 16, 2023) was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 2003. On November 10, 2003, an armed robbery took place in Dania Beach, Florida, when a man with a revolver forced his way into a Walgreens store. The suspect fled the store with nearly $2,000 in cash. Descriptions of the suspect provided by two store employees did not match. In 2004, a mistrial for Cure was declared after the jury deadlocked. Cure was tried again, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. [4]

The Florida Innocence Project conducted an investigation and found that an ATM receipt proved Cure had been miles away from the store during the time of the robbery. In April 2020, Cure was exonerated and released from prison. [5] Cure received $817,000 in compensation for his imprisonment. He was the first person to be exonerated by the Broward County Conviction Review Unit. [6]

Shooting

On Monday, October 16, 2023, at around 7:30 a.m., Cure was observed speeding in a pickup truck on Interstate 95 in Camden County, Georgia, by Sheriff's Deputy Buck Aldridge. Aldridge pursued Cure and pulled him over to the side of the road. Aldridge instructed Cure to exit his vehicle and move to the back of it. While Cure complied with exiting the vehicle, he refused to walk to the rear and place his hands on the back of the truck. Aldridge warned Cure he would be tased if he did not comply, prompting Cure to move to the back of the vehicle. When Aldridge instructed Cure to place his hands behind his back, Cure refused and questioned why he was being arrested instead of receiving a speeding ticket. When Cure raised one of his arms upwards, Aldridge tased him. [2] [4] [7]

While being tased, Cure turned and faced Aldridge and began walking towards him while swinging at him and grabbing the taser wire. The two men then engaged in a physical struggle for about 20 seconds, during which Cure grabbed Aldridge's face and throat. Aldridge struck Cure multiple times with his baton. As the struggle continued, Aldridge drew his gun and fired a fatal shot at Cure, causing him to fall to the ground. Paramedics arrived to render aid to Cure but he later died. [2] [4] [7]

Response

On October 18, the Camden County sheriff's office released body-worn and dash camera videos of the moments leading up to Cure's death. [4] [8] [9]

Relatives of Cure suspect he resisted arrest because of psychological trauma from spending 16 years imprisoned in Florida for a crime he did not commit. Cure's brother, Michael Cure, said, "I believe there were possibly some issues going on, some mental issues with my brother. I know him quite well. The officer just triggered him, undoubtedly triggered him. It was excitement met with excitement." [10]

On February 27, 2024, Cure's family filed a $16 million federal lawsuit against the sheriff's office and the deputy involved in Cure's death, alleging "excessive and deadly force" against Cure. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

Innocence Project, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal organization that is committed to exonerating individuals who have been wrongly convicted, through the use of DNA testing and working to reform the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. The group cites various studies estimating that in the United States between 1% and 10% of all prisoners are innocent. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld who gained national attention in the mid-1990s as part of the "Dream Team" of lawyers who formed part of the defense in the O. J. Simpson murder case.

The Groveland Four were four African American men, Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd, and Walter Irvin. In July 1949, the four were accused of raping a white woman and severely beating her husband in Lake County, Florida. The oldest, Thomas, tried to elude capture and was killed that month. The others were put on trial. Shepard and Irvin received death sentences, and Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison. The events of the case led to serious questions about the arrests, allegedly coerced confessions and mistreatment, and the unusual sentencing following their convictions. Their incarceration was exacerbated by their systemic and unlawful treatment—including the death of Shepherd, and the near-fatal shooting of Irvin. Greenlee was paroled in 1962 and Irvin in 1968. All four were posthumously exonerated by the state of Florida in 2021.

Wrongful execution is a miscarriage of justice occurring when an innocent person is put to death by capital punishment. Cases of wrongful execution are cited as an argument by opponents of capital punishment, while proponents say that the argument of innocence concerns the credibility of the justice system as a whole and does not solely undermine the use of the death penalty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Tafero</span> American executed for murder

Jesse Joseph Tafero was convicted of murder and executed via electric chair in the U.S. state of Florida for the murders of 39-year-old Florida Highway Patrol officer Phillip A. Black and 39-year-old Ontario Provincial Police Corporal Donald Irwin, a visiting Canadian constable and friend of Black. The officers were killed during a traffic stop where Tafero, his wife Sunny Jacobs and their children were passengers. Tafero's execution was botched; his head burst into flames during the execution by electric chair. After Tafero's execution, the driver, Walter Rhodes, confessed to shooting the officers, but later retracted his testimony.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in the United States.

Dewey Bozella is a former professional boxer who is known for being wrongfully imprisoned. Convicted in 1983 for the murder of an elderly woman, Bozella served 26 years in prison before his conviction was overturned in 2009 after being proved innocent.

This is a list of notable overturned convictions in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Joseph Richardson</span> African-American man wrongfully convicted of mass murder (1935-2023)

James Joseph Richardson was an African-American man who was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death in 1968 for the October 1967 mass murder of his seven children. They died after eating a poisoned breakfast containing the organic phosphate pesticide parathion. At the time of the murders, Richardson was a migrant farm worker in Arcadia, Florida living with his wife Annie Mae Richardson and their children. At a trial in Fort Myers, Florida, the jury found him guilty of murdering the children and sentenced him to death. As a result of the United States Supreme Court's 1972 Furman v. Georgia decision finding the death penalty unconstitutional, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was then exonerated in 1989 after 21 years, when his case was revisited by appointed Miami-Dade County prosecutor Janet Reno. Following Richardson's exoneration, the babysitter of the Richardson children, Bessie Reece, has been named as the key suspect. Reece died in 1993. In 2016 he began receiving compensation under a state law narrowly tailored to his case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of XXXTentacion</span> Murder in Deerfield Beach, Florida, US

On June 18, 2018, 20-year-old American rapper and singer-songwriter Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, known professionally as XXXTentacion, was murdered in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Onfroy was fatally shot and killed by 22-year-old Michael Boatwright after being robbed in his car by Boatwright and his accomplices Trayvon Newsome, Dedrick Williams, and Robert Allen outside RIVA Motorsports, an upscale seller of motorcycles and watercraft in Deerfield Beach. Authorities charged the four men with first-degree murder and robbery with a firearm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Javier Ambler</span> African-American man during arrest by police on March 28, 2019, in Austin, Texas

On March 28, 2019, Javier Ambler II died while being arrested by police in Austin, Texas, after fleeing due to a heart failure from deputies who sought to stop him for a traffic violation. Ambler was tased multiple times by authorities. Video of Ambler's death, recorded by police officers, was obtained and released by news organizations in June 2020. During the arrest Ambler repeatedly stated "I can't breathe" and "please save me" before dying. Ambler's death was recorded by a Live PD television crew, and the recording has since been destroyed, according to A&E Networks.

Eurie Martin was a 58-year-old mentally ill African-American man killed by three Washington County, Georgia sheriff's deputies, on the evening of July 7, 2017.

References

  1. ↑ Gabbatt, Adam (October 17, 2023). "US man wrongfully imprisoned for 16 years shot and killed by police". The Guardian . Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Georgia deputy shoots, kills Black man who spent 16 years in prison on wrongful conviction". Associated Press . October 17, 2023. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Inmate Release Information Detail – Inmate 116878". Florida Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Newly released video shows moments before a recently exonerated man was fatally shot by a deputy during a traffic stop". CNN . October 19, 2023. Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  5. ↑ Olmeda, Rafael (December 10, 2020). "Freed in April, Broward robbery convict now declared innocent". Sun Sentinel . Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  6. ↑ Drenon, Brandon (October 17, 2023). "Exonerated man shot and killed in traffic stop in Georgia". BBC News . Archived from the original on October 21, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  7. 1 2 "GBI Investigates Officer Involved Shooting in Camden County". Georgia Bureau of Investigation . October 16, 2023. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  8. ↑ Bynum, Russ (October 19, 2023). "Georgia sheriff releases video showing a violent struggle before deputy shoots exonerated man". Associated Press . Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  9. ↑ Walters, Makaelah (October 20, 2023). "Footage released shows killing of exoneree Leonard Cure by Georgia deputy". al.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  10. ↑ "US man killed by police 'triggered' after wrongful imprisonment, family say". The Guardian . October 19, 2023. Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  11. ↑ Almasy, Steve; Riess, Rebekah (February 27, 2024). "Family of man wrongfully convicted in robbery and later killed in Georgia traffic stop files $16 million federal lawsuit". CNN . Retrieved February 28, 2024.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.