Robert Duboise: Tampa approves $14M settlement in wrongful conviction — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00million that's how much the city of
2. 0:01Tampa will pay Robert Tu for the man who
3. 0:04spent nearly four decades behind bars
4. 0:07for a murder and rape that he didn't
5. 0:08commit city council signed off on the
6. 0:10settlement this afternoon let's bring in
7. 0:11foxer teams Aon Mesmer who's been
8. 0:13following this in our news room uh I
9. 0:14know Aon you spoke with him today uh I
10. 0:16can't imagine how he's feeling yeah mark
11. 0:18this is a man who lost potentially half
12. 0:20his life to a wrongful conviction so he
13. 0:22says it's really hard to put a price tag
14. 0:24on something like
15. 0:26that motion carried unanimously what is
16. 0:30the price of freedom on paper it's $14
17. 0:33million for Robert dubis I'm just
18. 0:35thankful it's over in reality after
19. 0:38spending 37 years behind bars for crimes
20. 0:40he didn't commit dubois's freedom is
21. 0:43priceless but his reaction to the 14
22. 0:45million doll wrongful conviction
23. 0:47settlement approved by Tampa City
24. 0:49Council Thursday isn't Joy it doesn't
25. 0:52matter because money houses all this
26. 0:56stuff can never restore your
27. 0:58life you know know so people are
28. 1:01surprised that I'm not excited or
29. 1:03something well I've been through this
30. 1:05for 40 years already in 1983 an
31. 1:0818-year-old DuBois was charged in the
32. 1:10murder and rape of 19-year-old Barbara
33. 1:12Grahams two years later a judge
34. 1:15sentenced him to death before was
35. 1:16adjusted to life in prison video from
36. 1:19The Trial shows the judge trying to calm
37. 1:21him down I know it's a tough situation
38. 1:23for you there's no question about it you
39. 1:25don't know how tough it is DUIs recalls
40. 1:27what went through his mind in court was
41. 1:30dumbfounded through the whole trial
42. 1:32because I didn't understand how it could
43. 1:34be happening dubis was convicted on
44. 1:36evidence that years later was determined
45. 1:38to be completely unreliable but it
46. 1:40wasn't until 2018 when the Innocence
47. 1:42Project stepped in that investigators
48. 1:44agreed to retest DNA evidence and that's
49. 1:47what finally exonerated dubis and helped
50. 1:49investigators charge two other men in
51. 1:51Graham's murder Amos Robinson and Abron
52. 1:54Scott Andrew Warren Hillsboro State
53. 1:56Attorney at the time spoke to council
54. 1:58before the vote now I tell you I have no
55. 2:01idea how you put a price on 37 years of
56. 2:04Freedom that's been taken away it's
57. 2:05never too late to do the right thing and
58. 2:08I believe that's what us as a city we
59. 2:10standing up and doing we're doing the
60. 2:12right thing it took four decades for
61. 2:14that to happen still dub remains hopeful
62. 2:16that today's technology will help others
63. 2:18who are wrongly accused avoid Decades of
64. 2:21Injustice you know if I had a cell phone
65. 2:23back then they could have pinged my
66. 2:25location you know all these cameras on
67. 2:28all these buildings if they existed you
68. 2:30know this never would have
69. 2:32happened you know because I would have
70. 2:34had something to fight
71. 2:36with and we're told the DNA from this
72. 2:38case also helped crack three other cold
73. 2:41cases of women who had been brutally
74. 2:42assaulted and murdered in the 1980s Mark
75. 2:45yeah Erin you can just hear the hurt
76. 2:46still in his voice it's you mean
77. 2:48hundreds of millions of dollars wouldn't
78. 2:49take that away but uh well we're happy
79. 2:52he's out now thanks