Georgia deputy shoots, kills Black man who spent 16 years in prison on wrongful conviction

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 10/16/23 | Unknown

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

KINGSLAND, Ga. — A Black man who spent more than 16 years imprisoned in Florida on a wrongful conviction was fatally shot Monday by a sheriff’s deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop, authorities said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is reviewing the shooting, identified the man as Leonard Allen Cure, 53.

Cure had been represented in his exoneration case by the Innocence Project of Florida. The group’s executive director, Seth Miller, said he was devastated by news of the death, which he heard from Cure’s family.

“I can only imagine what it’s like to know your son is innocent and watch him be sentenced to life in prison, to be exonerated and ... then be told that once he’s been freed, he’s been shot dead,” Miller said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said a Camden County deputy pulled over Cure as he drove along Interstate 95 near the Georgia-Florida line. He got out of the car at the deputy’s request and cooperated at first but became violent after he was told he was being arrested, a GBI news release said.

The agency said preliminary information shows the deputy shocked Cure with a stun gun when he failed to obey commands, and Cure began assaulting the deputy. The GBI said the deputy again tried using the stun gun and a baton to subdue him, then drew his gun and shot Cure when he continued to resist.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Very sad. But there has to be more to this story.

[MNJohnnie]

If he shrugged off the tazer, I would be very interested to see what drug his blood work shows he was on.

[MNDude]

That guy just can’t win

[Red Badger]

What was he being arrested for?...................

[Magnum44]

Agreed

[Fido969]

I guess he didn’t trust the police.

I wonder why?

[Fishtalk]

But there has to be more to this story.

There's a lot more to this story I bet.

[Zhang Fei]

A lot of “innocent” convicts are freed on technicalities. Remember the Central Park rapists? Same idea. The lawyers do it right - these technicalities free them at trial, before they end up in clink. But public defenders aren’t always the sharpest tools.

[z3n]

I guess it would be nice if you could attack a police officer and not have deadly force used on you, but then again, the cop used a tazer and baton and that didn’t work. Maybe people think policework is a sport and there should be a level playing field when cops are trying to arrest someone. Maybe they could just set up a ring right there on the road side and someone could ring a bell. Ding ding. “In this corner....” /s

If there is a sad part of the story, it is that if this guy really was wrongly convicted, all those years in jail hardened him, which is really sad, not only for all the lost years, but also that he may have been innocent when he was young but this tragedy may have doomed him.

But then again, there are people who get out of prison who don’t try to fight police.

[JSM_Liberty]

The cops were probably pissed off that his conviction had been overturned and had him on a watch list.

[StAnDeliver]

"Very sad. But there has to be more to this story."

YOU BET THERE IS...

"In June, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a claims bill granting Cure $817,000 in compensation for his conviction and imprisonment, along with educational benefits. Miller said Cure, who lived in a suburb of Atlanta, received the money in August."

[Eagles6]

Apparently, Mr Cure was a long term criminal, with many violent crimes in his history.
An armed robbery triggered a 3 strikes life sentence.
That conviction was tossed and his sentence modified and he was released.
Cure was a bad guy and should have been in prison, long ago.
Here, he, apparently, attacked a deputy.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[know.your.why]

...wrongful conviction.

Pretty sure that can mean all kinds of things...like getting off on a "technicality". It isn't necessarily a determination that the accused is innocent. It can very well mean that someone in the prosecution didnt follow the letter of the law or a witness was incompetent etc. If this guy is not the guilty party, who then is?

[Dan in Wichita]

If the officer had shot and killed a White man under the exact same set of circumstances, this would be mostly an ureported event.

The media is interested only in stories where they can portray Blacks as victims of a White supremacist society.

[StAnDeliver]

How about all the nets and #MSM pimping up this crAP agitprop, meanwhile FoxJacksonville website — the main local news — has a tiny blurb halfway down the page...

[plain talk]

“but became violent”

Another suicide by cop.

[rlmorel]

Resisting arrest is never going to end well. I can understand not wanting to risk going back to prison, but...it isn’t going to end well.

[StAnDeliver]

"But then again, there are people who get out of prison who don’t try to fight police."

See, exactly. Figure he had a least a couple thousand left out of that near-million he got in August, he had a lot to live for lofl.

But will the crAP report his toxicology report? Never. It took until the trial to get our hands on Big Gorge's full, loaded-to-the-gills badoink badoink toxicology report.

[gundog]

Meh. He’d done 16 years on an armed robbery conviction.

I’d be curious to see his tox screen. Two months after getting an $800K settlement, he may have been coked up.

[know.your.why]

From the article:

Mr Cure was previously sentenced to life in prison in 2003 for the armed robbery of a drug store in Florida. He had prior convictions for robbery and other crimes.

Earlier this year Mr Cure, who lived in a suburb of Atlanta, was given $817,000 in compensation for his wrongful conviction.

___________________________________________________

Bet the dude was high as a kite. His race dont matter. 9/10 of people with that history and a ton of cash in that situation and those circumstances is gonna be dirty.