A Florida man who spent over 16 years in prison on a wrongful conviction was shot and killed Monday during a traffic stop.
via Complex:
The Associated Press reports Leonard Allen Cure, 53, who’d been out of prison for three and a half years following his exoneration, was pulled over Monday morning along Interstate 95 in Georgia’s Camden County.
“Cure complied with the officer’s commands until learning that he was under arrest,” a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation read.
According to the GBI, Cure allegedly failed to obey law enforcement’s demands, before he physically assaulted the sheriff’s deputy. After the sheriff attempted to apprehend Cure by using his stun gun, the officer shot and killed Cure.
In 2003, Cure was wrongfully convicted of armed robbery over a drug store break-in in Florida’s Dania Beach. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison, due to previous convictions for robbery and other crimes.
Seth Miller, an executive director of the Innocence Project of Florida. which represented Cure in his exoneration case, expressed his devastation over Leonard’s killing.
“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. “I can’t imagine as a parent what that feels like.”
This is beyond heartbreaking.
