The Florida Senate has formally apologized to the families of four black men accused of raping a white teenager nearly seven decades ago in a case now seen as racial injustice.
The resolution unanimously approved Thursday also asks Gov. Rick Scott and the Cabinet to grant the men full posthumous pardons.
The Lake County men known as the Groveland Four were accused of the rape in 1949 under dubious circumstances. One of them was hunted down by a posse of about 1,000 men and shot more than 400 times.
Three others were convicted. After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new trial in 1951, a sheriff shot two of them, claiming the handcuffed men were trying to escape. One died.
The two surviving men were eventually paroled.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
