CNN
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Two months after the state of Florida formally apologized to Leonard Remedy for the 16 years he misplaced following a wrongful conviction for armed theft, authorities say he was fatally shot Monday by a sheriff’s deputy throughout a visitors cease simply throughout the state line in Georgia.
“He and his household deserved higher,” the Innocence Mission of Florida stated in a press release. “Lenny’s life mattered.”
Remedy’s quest to rebuild his life after being wrongfully convicted in 2003 ended tragically on the shoulder of Interstate 95 in South Georgia on Monday morning.
On Wednesday, the Camden County, Georgia, sheriff’s workplace launched body-worn and sprint digicam movies of the moments main as much as the taking pictures.
Within the sprint cam video, the deputy begins pursuing Remedy along with his sirens on after Remedy’s car passes his. The pursuit lasts about one minute and 20 seconds.
Within the video, the deputy tells Remedy to get out of his car and says he pulled him over as a result of he was rushing and driving recklessly. “You handed me going 100 miles per hour,” the deputy says.
“I’m not going to jail,” Remedy says at one level. The deputy responds, “Sure, you will jail.”
The deputy orders Remedy a number of instances to place his fingers behind his again, warning him he shall be tased if he doesn’t. When Remedy doesn’t comply, the deputy tases him.
Whereas being tased, Remedy turns and begins strolling towards the deputy and grabs the Taser wire. The 2 interact in a bodily battle for about 20 seconds, throughout which Remedy grabs the deputy’s throat and face. The deputy strikes Remedy a number of instances with a baton and Remedy is heard saying, “Yeah, b*tch,” because the battle goes on.
The deputy seems to fireside his weapon and Remedy falls to the bottom. The gunshot is just not audible within the movies.
The deputy is heard saying, “Camden, photographs fired,” into his radio whereas he nonetheless instructions Remedy to remain down. Remedy will be seen sitting up at instances and flailing his arms. The deputy is then seen unpacking a first-aid package and seems to start administering assist till paramedics take over.
Remedy later died, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stated.
The sheriff’s workplace stated it launched the movies to be clear “relating to the actions that occurred” and to point out the “confrontation and use of pressure.”
The GBI has stated it “will conduct an unbiased investigation of the incident and switch its findings over to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Legal professional’s Workplace for evaluate.”
CNN has reached out to representatives of Remedy’s household.
Remedy had been exonerated and launched from jail in April 2020, after serving a part of a life sentence for armed theft in Broward County, Florida, courtroom paperwork stated.
“He got here dwelling and I used to be over the moon as a result of I believed that he was lastly free,” Remedy’s mom, Mary, advised reporters at a information convention earlier on Wednesday. “My child was free. However the reality of the matter is that he by no means got here dwelling.”
At 53, Remedy had reconnected along with his household, gotten a gradual safety job and was quietly beginning a brand new life in an Atlanta suburb, the place he was utilizing the compensation from his wrongful conviction and imprisonment to purchase his first dwelling, in accordance with the Innocence Mission.
“The Leonard we knew was a sensible, humorous and sort particular person,” Broward State Legal professional Harold F. Pryor stated of the person who was the primary particular person exonerated by the workplace’s conviction evaluate unit.
“After he was freed and exonerated by our workplace, he visited prosecutors at our workplace and took part in coaching to assist our employees do their jobs within the fairest and most thorough approach potential.”
Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump and Florida Innocence Mission Director Seth Miller joined members of Remedy’s household on the information convention.
“He’s somebody who was failed by the system as soon as and he has once more been failed b2y the system,” Miller stated Wednesday, referring to Remedy. “He’s been twice taken away from his household.”
Remedy’s household deliberate to view the physique and sprint digicam footage, his brother, Michael Remedy, stated earlier. The household was anticipated to satisfy privately with investigators shortly earlier than the video’s public launch and, following the viewing, the household deliberate to satisfy with the district lawyer’s workplace to debate subsequent steps and potential disciplinary motion for the deputy concerned, the brother stated Wednesday.
The household says the sheriff’s workplace footage is just not the one video of the incident.
Crump, the civil rights lawyer, stated Remedy was on Fb Reside in the course of the visitors cease, however stated the video has been pulled off the social media platform.
Recognized to mates as Lenny, Remedy was returning dwelling to Fairburn, Georgia, after his visiting his mom when the the deputy stopped him, the Florida Innocence Mission, which represented Remedy, stated in a press release.
“Sadly his life was minimize tragically quick,” Miller stated.
In 2019, when the Broward State Legal professional’s Workplace launched a conviction evaluate unit, one of many first petitions it acquired was from Remedy, who had beforehand misplaced 4 appeals for post-conviction reduction, in accordance with Broward County courtroom data.
The Florida Innocence Mission stated its investigation discovered that an ATM receipt confirmed Remedy was miles away on the time of the theft he was convicted of committing.
“There isn’t a technicality right here – incontrovertible proof of precise innocence, and it was the prosecutors who prosecuted him, that workplace, the identical workplace that moved to vacate his conviction,” Miller stated at Wednesday’s information convention.
The armed theft passed off in Dania Seashore on November 10, 2003, when a person with a revolver compelled his approach right into a Walgreens retailer within the early morning hours, in accordance with the Florida Innocence Mission. The suspect left the shop with $1,700 in money. The descriptions of the suspect supplied by two retailer workers didn’t match.
The Florida Innocence Mission stated its investigation additionally concluded “a photograph array proven to one of many victims contained a number of images of Lenny and was due to this fact an unreliable, suggestive identification process.”
In 2004, a mistrial was declared after the jury was deadlocked. Weeks later, Remedy was tried once more and convicted. He was sentenced to life in jail for armed theft with a firearm and assault with a firearm.
In April 2020, the conviction evaluate unit modified Remedy’s sentence to 16 years and he was launched on time served, in accordance with the Innocence Mission.
Remedy in August acquired $817,000 in compensation for his conviction and imprisonment, or roughly $50,000 for every year taken from his life. Crump on Wednesday known as the compensation “a mere pittance.”
Pryor, the Broward State Legal professional, recalled this week that Remedy “would regularly name to test in on Assistant State Legal professional Arielle Demby Berger, the pinnacle of the Conviction Evaluation Unit, and provide our crew encouragement to proceed to do the necessary work of justice.”