Exonerated man looked forward to college after prison. Deputy killed him during traffic stop
SAVANNAH, Georgia — Leonard Cure tried to make up for the 16 years he lost imprisoned in Florida after being wrongfully convicted of armed robbery in 2004. Since being freed three years ago, he gave inspirational talks to high school students, worked a security job and, at age 53, was considering college after buying a home. Then a Georgia sheriff’s deputy pulled Cure over Monday along Interstate 95, just north of the Florida line. Authorities say Cure had been speeding at more than 90 mph (145 kph), and faced arrest for reckless driving. Instead of going to jail, he ended up dead. The Black man was compliant until he was told he was under arrest, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation statement. Citing preliminary information, the GBI said the deputy tased Cure after he didn’t obey the officer’s commands, Cure assaulted the deputy, and the deputy then used the Taser a second time, along with a baton, before pulling out his gun and shooting him. Video recorded by the deputy’s body camera and patrol car dash camera will be reviewed along with the officer’s statement and other evidence before the agency sends its findings to prosecutors, said Stacy Carson, the GBI agent leading the shooting investigation. Studies show Black Americans face a disproportionate risk of being wrongfully convicted of crimes or killed by police. The anxiety for people freed after doing time for crimes they didn’t commit can be intense, said Seth Miller, executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida. Miller, who worked to help Cure win freedom, said he’s seen dozens of exonerated clients grapple with “an overarching fear that at any moment the cops are going to come” and take them back to jail or prison. “That’s the context that people need to understand when they view any situation like this: You have a perfectly wonderful person who has a wrongful incarceration in their past and how that might contribute,” Miller said. “It is a tragedy all around.” Cure was pulled over while driving to the home he recently bought outside Atlanta after visiting his ill mother, Miller said. Two weeks earlier, Cure had shared his story with high school students at an Innocence Project event in Georgia. “Lenny was a good soul, cared about people,” Miller said. “He was getting his life back together.” Equally stunned were Florida prosecutors who had stayed in touch with
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