A man who spent 37 years in prison after the Tampa Police Department falsified evidence against him is now suing four TPD officers and an “expert witness” for damages (article available here).
Robert DuBoise was just 18 when he was arrested in 1983. Following his arrest, four Tampa Police Department officers allegedly conspired to falsify evidence against him in order to wrongfully convict him of murder and rape.
"The only physical evidence against him was faked 'bite mark' evidence that allegedly pointed to DuBoise as the culprit. The scientific validity of bite marks as evidence has been thoroughly discredited in recent years, and in DuBoise's case, the bite marks on the victim turned out to not even be produced by a human,” says a press release sent out Monday.
In 2020, critical DNA evidence that was believed to have been lost was uncovered. DNA testing conclusively proved Mr. DuBoise’s innocence and identified the real killer(s)—people with no connection to DuBoise. As a result, he was released from prison on Aug. 27, 2020, a day after prosecutors dropped their case against him. On Sept. 14, 2020 DuBoise was finally exonerated of the crimes.
While he avoided execution, DuBoise was falsely branded a rapist and murderer. During his decades of maximum security imprisonment—including three years on death row—he witnessed stabbings and killings of other inmates, and was himself the victim of violence, including an attempted murder.
During his long incarceration he lost his father and many aunts, uncles, nieces, and cousins. Today he works as a home renovator and repairer.