Man Wrongfully Imprisoned for 37 Years to Receive $14 Million From City of Tampa

A man who spent 37 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the 1983 rape and murder of a woman in Tampa, Fla., will receive $14 million in a settlement with the City of Tampa, it said Thursday.

The man, Robert DuBoise, 59, was just 18 when he was arrested in connection with the killing of Barbara Grams, 19, who was beaten to death and whose body was discovered behind a dental office on the north side of the city on Aug. 19, 1983.

Mr. DuBoise was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted sexual battery in 1985 following a one-week trial in which a jailhouse informant claimed he was guilty, and prosecutors argued that Mr. DuBoise’s teeth matched what they described as a bite mark on the victim’s cheek. He was initially sentenced to death, but three years later, the Florida Supreme Court changed that sentence to life in prison.

In August 2020, Mr. DuBoise was freed after new DNA evidence came to light that exonerated him and implicated two other men who were later charged in the killing. The next year, Mr. DuBoise filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Tampa, four former police officers and the forensic odontologist who had testified against him.

On Thursday, the Tampa City Council unanimously approved the settlement, which is to be paid in three installments over three years.

“I’m just grateful,” Mr. DuBoise said in an interview Thursday, adding that he hoped his case could serve as an example for others who had been wrongfully convicted. He said he hoped that “they get justice and can move on without having to spend the rest of their life fighting the system that has already wronged them.”

According to the lawsuit, the odontologist, Dr. Richard Souviron, “knowingly fabricated,” the bite mark evidence in collaboration with the police officers, requesting that they make an impression of Mr. DuBoise’s teeth from beeswax, despite the fact that it is not used for making such molds, because beeswax is too soft to retain its shape. The officers, the suit claimed, made no effort to find the real perpetrator, and instead conspired to “conjure additional false evidence” against Mr. DuBoise, coercing informants to testify against him.

Dr. Souviron said in a deposition that he had never fabricated any evidence and had not conspired with the officers to convict Mr. DuBoise. Neither he nor his lawyer could immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday evening.

According to settlement documents, the city denied allegations of “intentional wrongdoing” by the Tampa Police Department or its former officers, who, in depositions, claimed they had never coerced a jail informant to testify against Mr. DuBoise. In his own deposition, the jail informant said Mr. DuBoise had never confessed to the rape or killing, and that he had been threatened by the officers to provide a false testimony, according to the documents. Luis Viera, a City Council member, said in a statement on Thursday that through the settlement, the Council “did what it could do to make this disturbing wrong right.”

Chief Lee Bercaw of the Tampa Police Department said in a statement on Thursday that advancements in training and technology have since enhanced its “capacity for conducting investigations, ensuring greater accuracy and due process for all.” One of the four former police officers has since died. The lawyer for the three other officers could not be immediately reached for comment on Thursday evening.

Mr. DuBoise’s lawyer, Gayle Horn, said that despite advances, courts continued to admit the kind of “junk science” that left her client wrongfully imprisoned for close to four decades.

“Prosecutors continue to rely on junk science, and juries continue to convict based on it without knowing any better,” she said. “It’s a real problem that continues to plague the criminal justice system. I hope, and I am optimistic that we can, and should, do better.”