Tampa man free after 37 years in prison for a Crime he didn’t commit Robert Duboise wrong conviction — Transcript

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1. 0:00Innocent Man released from prison after
2. 0:0237 years for Crime he didn't commit
3. 0:05Robert Dubois man wrongfully convicted
4. 0:09of murder and attempted rape of Barbara
5. 0:11grams Tampa Florida in 1983. 20 years
6. 0:15old Barbara grams who was assistant
7. 0:18manager at the Hot Potato restaurant in
8. 0:21the now defunct Tampa Bay Center was
9. 0:23walking home on August 18
10. 0:261983. she slain as she walked home from
11. 0:29work found bludgeoned in the parking lot
12. 0:32of a dental office 10 blocks from her
13. 0:34house she had been beaten with a piece
14. 0:37of a two by four Barbara Grahams walked
15. 0:40the two miles to and from work for the
16. 0:42exercise as she was always worried about
17. 0:45her weight grams made it within blocks
18. 0:48of home before she was slain a month
19. 0:51earlier freelance photographer Linda
20. 0:53Tony Lanson left her apartment the
21. 0:56evening of July 10 1983 about five weeks
22. 0:59before grams was slain and never
23. 1:02returned her body was discovered the
24. 1:05next morning in a ditch in the town in
25. 1:07country area of Hillsborough County
26. 1:09Lanson had been raped and shot multiple
27. 1:12times at the time police officials
28. 1:15discounted fears that the killings were
29. 1:18related while lanson's case has remained
30. 1:21cold for nearly four decades it took
31. 1:24about two months for Hillsborough County
32. 1:26authorities to arrest a suspect in
33. 1:28Graham's murder
34. 1:29Robert Earl Dubois 18 years old was
35. 1:33arrested October 22 1983 and charged in
36. 1:37the brutal killing DuBois was convicted
37. 1:40in 1985 of capital murder and attempted
38. 1:44sexual battery based upon faulty bite
39. 1:46mark evidence and the word of a
40. 1:48jailhouse informant the bite mark expert
41. 1:52who testified against him Dr Robert
42. 1:54souviron was also instrumental in
43. 1:57securing the capital murder conviction
44. 1:59that put serial killer Ted Bundy on
45. 2:02Florida's death row Bundy who was
46. 2:05executed in 1989 for the 1978 murder of
47. 2:09twelve-year-old Kimberly Leach also left
48. 2:12bite marks on at least one of his
49. 2:14victims
50. 2:16like Bundy Dubois ended up on death row
51. 2:19after the judge in his case overall
52. 2:21dura's recommendation that he served
53. 2:24life in prison his death sentence was
54. 2:27later commuted to life in prison without
55. 2:29parole the Innocence Project took on
56. 2:32dubois's case in 2018. he was exonerated
57. 2:36in 2020 after testing of the DNA
58. 2:39evidence in the case proved two other
59. 2:41men and not Dubois were responsible for
60. 2:45Graham's murder the wrong conviction
61. 2:47court records in the case did not
62. 2:50indicate how Dubois arrived on
63. 2:52detective's radar but authorities
64. 2:55believe that he his brother Victor
65. 2:57DuBois and a friend Raymond Garcia had
66. 3:01raped and killed grams
67. 3:04Victor DuBois and Garcia were never
68. 3:06charged in the case on October 13 1983
69. 3:11authorities obtained an impression of
70. 3:13Robert dubois's teeth for comparison to
71. 3:16a supposed bite mark on Graham's body
72. 3:19suviron a forensic dentist and assistant
73. 3:22Dade County Medical Examiner told the
74. 3:26newspaper that he had compared the bite
75. 3:28mark to 405 Dental Impressions given to
76. 3:31him by the police he identified Dubois
77. 3:35as the source of the bite mark DuBois
78. 3:38was arrested the same morning that
79. 3:40Oriana was slain in four hours of
80. 3:43testimony at dubois's March 1985 trial
81. 3:46suviron testified that the defendant's
82. 3:49teeth both upper and lower left the bite
83. 3:52mark on the left cheek of Barbara
84. 3:54Grahams to a reasonable degree of dental
85. 3:57certainty the bite mark evidence was the
86. 4:00only physical evidence that purportedly
87. 4:02put Dubois at the scene of Graham's
88. 4:04murder the Innocence Project's lawyers
89. 4:07said no eyewitnesses put him near the
90. 4:10crime scene and other physical evidence
91. 4:12excluded him as the killer a jailhouse
92. 4:15informant was the only other evidence
93. 4:17bolstering the state's case
94. 4:20the jailhouse informant testified that
95. 4:23Dubois told him two other men had
96. 4:25murdered the victim while Dubois raped
97. 4:28her the Innocence Project discovered
98. 4:30significant inconsistencies in his
99. 4:33original testimony the new DNA evidence
100. 4:36now clearly refutes the informant's
101. 4:38testimony the DNA does not match any of
102. 4:41the three men that the informant said
103. 4:43were involved in the rape and murder
104. 4:45during his testimony the man denied
105. 4:48receiving any benefit for his testimony
106. 4:51and denied being a police informant both
107. 4:54of those claims were later proven false
108. 4:56the informant was facing multiple life
109. 5:00sentences for kidnapping armed robbery
110. 5:02and Battery of a law enforcement officer
111. 5:05after cooperating with law enforcement
112. 5:08and providing a sworn statement in
113. 5:10dubois's case he was offered a plea and
114. 5:13sentenced to five years in prison after
115. 5:16testifying in court against DuBois and
116. 5:19once a death sentence was secured the
117. 5:21informant received a further sentence
118. 5:23reduction to time served and he was
119. 5:26immediately released jurors had been
120. 5:28told the informant was in prison and
121. 5:30would remain there to serve his entire
122. 5:32sentence they also learned that the man
123. 5:35had previously provided information on
124. 5:38other murders and rapes in the Tampa Bay
125. 5:40area and that one of the detectives on
126. 5:42the Graham's case was the informants
127. 5:44Handler the Innocence Project worked
128. 5:47with the State's Attorney's conviction
129. 5:49review unit established by Warren in
130. 5:522018 to go over the scant evidence
131. 5:55dubois's case forensic DNA testing was
132. 5:59not Advanced enough in 1983 for use in
133. 6:02prosecution so rake kit samples
134. 6:05recovered from the victim were collected
135. 6:07and stored away Warren's office said in
136. 6:102020 evidence stored from dubois's trial
137. 6:14was presumed to have been destroyed in
138. 6:161990 making new DNA testing seemingly
139. 6:20impossible in August 2020 prosecutors
140. 6:24discovered the evidence they believed
141. 6:26had been lost
142. 6:28rape kit samples from dubois's trial
143. 6:31were presumed to have been destroyed in
144. 6:331990 making new DNA testing seemingly
145. 6:37impossible
146. 6:38however in August 2020 in the course of
147. 6:42her case review Cru supervising attorney
148. 6:45Teresa Hall located rape kit samples
149. 6:48unused in the trial still intact at the
150. 6:52Hillsborough medical examiner's office
151. 6:54DNA lab tested them when the DNA from
152. 6:58the crime scene was compared to that of
153. 7:00Dubois there was no match the bite mark
154. 7:04evidence was also problematic the
155. 7:07scientific Community now considers bite
156. 7:09mark evidence unreliable in identifying
157. 7:12perpetrators in criminal cases such as
158. 7:15this and the current expert has
159. 7:17determined the injury was not in fact a
160. 7:20bite mark at all Warren's office stated
161. 7:23the court initially modified dubois's
162. 7:26sentence in August 2020 to the time he
163. 7:29had already served for the murder
164. 7:31allowing him to be immediately released
165. 7:34in September 2020 he was officially
166. 7:37exonerated Robert has spent more than 36
167. 7:41years in prison because of discredited
168. 7:43by to Mark evidence and the testimony of
169. 7:46an unreliable jailhouse informant the
170. 7:49presence of DNA from two other people is
171. 7:52indisputable scientific proof that he is
172. 7:55innocent Robert has spent decades
173. 7:57determined to show that he was
174. 7:59wrongfully convicted and we are eager to
175. 8:01see him fully exonerated
176. 8:04Robert Dubois stepped out of Hardy
177. 8:07Correctional Institution as a free man
178. 8:09for the first time on September 2020
179. 8:12when asked what he wanted to do first he
180. 8:16answered well I already did it I hugged
181. 8:19my mom
182. 8:20Dubois said he always knew the DNA
183. 8:23evidence would clear his name he
184. 8:26expressed hope that his story would
185. 8:28encourage other wrongfully imprisoned
186. 8:30people to continue to fight for their
187. 8:32freedom when asked if he was bitter
188. 8:34about the wrongful conviction which
189. 8:36resulted in spending nearly 37 years in
190. 8:39prison he proclaimed I have no
191. 8:42bitterness at all because I don't have
192. 8:44room in my life for bitterness
193. 8:47bitterness if you keep hatred and
194. 8:50bitterness in your heart it just steals
195. 8:52your joy from everything else I can't
196. 8:55get back the decades that I lost but I'm
197. 8:58going to try to rebuild my life with my
198. 9:00family Dubois said upon his exoneration
199. 9:04it won't be easy he had admitted to
200. 9:07being a bit nervous but also excited
201. 9:10about being free for the first time
202. 9:12since 1983. he is aware the road ahead
203. 9:16will be a transition and admitted to
204. 9:18never having used an iPhone or computer
205. 9:20and never stepped foot in a Walmart or a
206. 9:23Home Depot but I am just so grateful
207. 9:25that my voice was heard and the truth is
208. 9:28out there Robert Dubois filed a lawsuit
209. 9:31against suviron and several of the
210. 9:33former Tampa Police officials
211. 9:35responsible for his arrest and
212. 9:37conviction two years later a grand jury
213. 9:40returned an indictment against Amos
214. 9:42Robinson and Abron Scott for the murder
215. 9:45of grams both men are serving life in
216. 9:48prison for a 1983 Pinellas County murder
217. 9:51they are also charged with the slaying
218. 9:54of Linda Lanson who disappeared from her
219. 9:57tamper apartment in July 1983. both
220. 10:00prosecutions remain pending since his
221. 10:03exoner operation three years ago Dubois
222. 10:07has worked as a truck driver and a
223. 10:09maintenance worker for a country club he
224. 10:12made repeated trips to Tallahassee in
225. 10:14recent weeks to appear before committees
226. 10:16and meet lawmakers he had help from
227. 10:19delegal Aubuchon Consulting a public
228. 10:22policy firm which represented him on a
229. 10:25pro bono basis on 29 April 2023 Florida
230. 10:30lawmakers OK
231. 10:321.85 million dollars for tamper man's
232. 10:35wrongful conviction the legislature
233. 10:38approved bills to compensate Robert
234. 10:40Dubois who spent 37 years in prison for
235. 10:44a crime he didn't commit the state
236. 10:46selected Representatives made a gesture
237. 10:49to tell him they were sorry it was an
238. 10:51apology that came with the promise of
239. 10:541.85 million dollars representing 50 000
240. 10:58for each of the 37 years that Dubois
241. 11:01spent wrongfully incarcerated for a
242. 11:03murder he did not commit
243. 11:06from a house spectator Gallery Dubois
244. 11:09stood and smiled as state
245. 11:11representatives gave him a standing
246. 11:13ovation Friday after the vote
247. 11:15I'm just really thankful it's done
248. 11:18Dubois said afterward I met a lot of
249. 11:21good people and I'm thankful to them for
250. 11:24being so supportive he spent all day
251. 11:27watching lawmakers debate and vote on
252. 11:29other legislation waiting more than
253. 11:32eight hours for them to consider his
254. 11:34case
255. 11:34representative Wyman Duggan R
256. 11:37Jacksonville one of the house Bill's
257. 11:39sponsors said he was told that Dubois
258. 11:42has learned to be patient we have a part
259. 11:45to play and this is it Duggan told house
260. 11:48members
261. 11:49we can apologize and we can do in a
262. 11:52small way something to make him whole
263. 11:55the money that's given in no way makes
264. 11:57up for the years months days minutes and
265. 12:01moments lost said Kimberly Daniels D
266. 12:04Jacksonville one of the Bill's sponsors
267. 12:07but it is my prayer that for the 37
268. 12:10years that Mr Dubois experienced I pray
269. 12:14that this will at least give him some
270. 12:15relief and when the money hits his
271. 12:18account I pray that he will flourish
272. 12:21Dubois said he hopes to use the money to
273. 12:24open a business buy a home and help his
274. 12:26family