A man who spent over 16 years in jail serving a life sentence for an armed robbery that he was later exonerated for will receive a large compensation for being wrongfully jailed.
Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor announced on Friday that Leonard Cure is set to receive a historic compensation for his wrongful conviction: $817,000.
Cure, now 53, will also receive 120 hours of college tuition and fees.
When the Broward State Attorney created a new Conviction Review Unit in Dec. 2019, Cure filed his own petition to urge the CRU to review his case.
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With the help of the Innocence Project of Florida, Cure was allowed to go home in April 2020.
There was no physical evidence that linked him to the armed robbery, committed in 2003. He also had an alibi, which was an ATM receipt showing he withdrew $20 about 20 minutes before the incident, which had occurred two and a half miles away.
The jury in Cure's case initially deadlocked, but a second jury, which was not shown the alibi, found him guilty.
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The reliability of the eyewitnesses was later questioned as well.
Cure was fully exonerated in Dec. 2020, making his case the first exoneration of the Broward State Attorney’s Office’s Conviction Review Unit.
The claims bill containing the terms of his compensation, HB 6001, was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday.
State Rep. Michael Gottlieb. State Rep. Ashley Gantt, and State Senator Shevrin Jones "shepherded" the bill, according to a press release from the Broward State Attorney's Office.
Assistant State Attorney Arielle Demby Berger said in the press release:
"These cases are rare and take a lot of time. This is exactly why conviction review units and the opportunity for an exoneration are so crucial to ensuring justice. While Mr. Cure spent more than 16 years in prison, the entire state has recognized this error and worked together to remedy it. I’ve gotten to know Mr. Cure, “Lenny,” these past years and he has encouraged our work as well as helped us train future generations of prosecutors. Lenny has shared with me that his dream was one day to work in a cubicle instead of doing manual labor. Now, Lenny can go to college and surpass his dreams.”
