Man freed from prison 16 years after wrongful conviction is shot dead during police traffic stop

A black man who spent 16 years in a Florida prison after being wrongly convicted of a 2004 armed robbery was shot and killed by a Georgia sheriff’s deputy who pulled him over for speeding on Monday. 

Leonard Allan Cure was released from prison three years ago. He spent his days giving inspirational speeches to high school students, working as a security guard, and pondering going to college to study music production.

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The 53-year-old was stopped around 7:30 a.m. along Interstate 95, just north of the Florida-Georgia line, for allegedly driving more than 90 mph in a 70 mph zone. Cure was returning home to Fairburn, Georgia, after visiting his mother. The deputy asked Cure to get out of his vehicle, which he did, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which has launched an investigation into the incident.

(Innocence Project of Florida via AP)

Cure “complied with the officer’s commands until learning that he was under arrest,” the GBI said. It added that the deputy tased Cure, who, in turn, assaulted the deputy, who then tased Cure a second time and used a baton on him before pulling out his gun and fatally shooting him.

“Sadly, his life was cut tragically short,” Innocence Project of Florida Executive Director Seth Miller said in a statement. The group, which worked to overturn Cure’s conviction, added the state of Florida had apologized to Cure in August and that he had received $817,000 in compensation. He was also on track to receive college tuition. Cure had closed on a house in Palmetto, Georgia, a week before he was shot and killed.

“He was on an upward trajectory, and to see that cut short, it’s just really devastating,” Miller said. “And it’s hard to believe that it’s happened.”

(Innocence Project of Florida via AP)

Cure was the first person exonerated by the Broward County State Attorney’s Office’s conviction review unit, which was launched in 2019.

He was convicted of robbing a Walgreens in Dania Beach, Florida, even though he had an alibi and there was no physical or forensic evidence against him. Cure unsuccessfully appealed his conviction four times on his own.

“The Leonard we knew was a smart, funny, and kind person,” Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor said in the statement. “After he was freed and exonerated by our office, he visited prosecutors at our office and participated in training to help our staff do their jobs in the fairest and most thorough way possible.”

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The deputy who shot and killed Cure has not been identified but has been put on administrative leave, said Larry Bruce, the public information officer for the Camden County Sheriff’s Office.

The body camera footage of the incident has not been released, though it is expected to be following the GBI’s investigation into the incident.