Seven decades after being accused of raping a white woman, four African-American men were posthumously pardoned on Friday by the state of Florida.
The pardons of Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin, Charles Greenlee and Ernest Thomas – known as the Groveland Four — follow a long, violent story that had become symbolic of racial injustice in the state, and in Jim Crow America.
"Make no mistake, these men were victims," DeSantis said last month. In a statement released Friday, he explained that the "four men have had their history wrongly written for crimes they did not commit."