(Image: Casey Brooke Lawson/The Innocence Project) (September 14, 2020 Tampa, Florida) Today, Robert DuBoise was exonerated from all charges in the 1983 rape and murder of a young woman in Tampa, Florida. Based on junk-science bite-mark evidence and false testimony from a prison informant, Robert DuBoise (pictured with his mother, Myra, following his release) was convicted of raping and murdering 19-year-old Barbara Grams. A review by the unit and the Innocence Project found that the injury on Ms. Gramss cheek was not a bite mark and that the jailhouse informant who testified against Mr. DuBoise was not credible, prosecutors said. The DNA testing, prosecutors said, had identified two other men. This case was filed in Osceola County Courts, Not Classified By Court located in Osceola, Florida. Unlike other areas of forensic analysis, bite mark analysis lacks validated rules, regulations or processes for accreditation that would establish standards for the expert testimony. On October 22, the police brought DuBoise in at 2:00 a.m. and questioned him for about one hour. Have a tip or story idea? Robert Dubois in Fort Lauderdale, FL 13 results - Robert Dubois may also have lived outside of Fort Lauderdale, such as Fort Walton Beach, Hollywood and 2 other cities in Florida. Robert C Dubois, Age 91 Open report >> Lives: Sarasota, FL, in zip codes 34237 and 34235; DuBoise appealed his case in 2006, hoping to prove his innocence with DNA evidence that couldn't be properly processed in the '80s. The only physical evidence implicating Mr. DuBoise was fabricated bitemark evidence that supposedly matched Mr. DuBoise to an injury on the victims body. According to the lawsuit, investigators initially focused on DuBoise after an attendant at a gas station across the street from where Grams body was found told police that three boys named Robert, Bo and Ray had been causing trouble in the area. I praise them for all they did. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media. Pennsylvania man who wrongly spent 23 years on death row is freed, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. View Robert Roger Dubois results in Melbourne, FL including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. The Innocence Project is affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. This court has failed you for 37 years, Nash said during the remote hearing. Activity Our building permit records indicate that Robert E Dubois has worked on at least 35 projects over the past 3 years. A few weeks later on September 14, 2020, the court vacated his wrongful convictions and the State dropped the charges against Robert DuBoise in a virtual hearing, exonerating him after 37 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. 2023 Innocence Project. On August 19, 1983, a young womans body was found behind a dental office in Tampa, Florida. I am just so grateful that my voice was heard and the truth is out there, said DuBoise. Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from the Innocence Project: The CRU announced their collaboration with the Innocence Project to audit prior cases involving bite mark evidence. The state took 37 years away from Robert, Friedman said. Beyond that, wrongful convictions threaten public safety, putting an innocent person behind bars while the actual person who committed the crime goes free.. In fact, the victims injury was not a human bite mark at all, wroteDaniel Marshall, an attorney for the Human Rights Defense Center representing DuBoise. There are really true-hearted people in these offices now, he said. DNA evidence proved Robert DuBoise, who was released from prison last month, did not commit 1983 crime. Todays exoneration finally removes the shackles from Robert DuBoise. Fraud Alert:We have heard that there are people who fraudulently represent themselves as working for the Innocence Project of Florida, promising legal representation in exchange for money. Mr. I am grateful to the Conviction Review Unit for their partnership on this case and look forward to collaborating on re-examining other bite mark cases to identify other wrongful convictions that resulted from the use of this highly unreliable evidence. said Susan Friedman, DuBoises Innocence Project attorney. It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Robert A. Dubois of Port Charlotte, Florida, who passed away on June 6, 2022, at the age of 80, leaving to mourn family and friends. The lawsuit, first reported by the Tampa Bay Times, seeks unspecified damages. 14 connections. Susan Friedman, the Innocence Project lawyer representing DuBoise, said he maintained his innocence on Death Row and often in solitary confinement in six Florida prisons. He now has the freedom he has deserved all along. DuBoise is not alone in being convicted based on unreliable bite mark evidence at least 33 known wrongful convictions and indictments have stemmed from bite mark evidence. View Robert Dubois results in Fort Lauderdale, FL including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. DNA evidence proved his innocense in the rape and murder of Barbara Grams. He was sentenced to death, then re-sentenced to life. I hope that my story helps others to keep fighting to prove their innocence. Mr. Warren said that the scientific community, including the National Academy of Sciences, had rejected the type of bite-mark analysis used in Mr. DuBoises case. Through observation and autopsy, authorities concluded the woman was raped and beaten to death. While we rely on charitable donations to support our work, we never solicit money for our services from our clients. 0:00. 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He was interrogated and taken to have a mold of his teeth made. To prove their case, prosecutors presented testimony from a local dentist who concluded that an injury on Ms. Gramss cheek was a bite mark, as well as testimony from a dental expert who said that Mr. DuBoise had inflicted the bite. The presence of DNA from two other people is indisputable scientific proof that he is innocent. The Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, is a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. All Filters. . Grams was raped and beaten to death while walking home from her job at a restaurant on Aug. 19, 1983. There was no other evidence connecting DuBoise to the crime until he was transported to Hillsborough County Jail where a jailhouse informant falsely alleged that DuBoise made statements implicating himself in the crime. DuBoise has been deprived of all the basic pleasures of human experience, which all free people enjoy as a matter of right., Republished with permission of The Associated Press. Killer Motive: What Drives People To Kill? He concluded that the original bite mark conclusions are unsupported by science and, most critically, found that although two experts at trial concluded that the pattern injury was a bite mark, the injury in this case was in fact not a bite mark. Anyone can read what you share. Create your free profile and get access to exclusive content. Very little pointed to 18-year-old Robert DuBoise as the man responsible for the vicious rape and murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams, who was found bludgeoned to death in August 1983. DuBoise was resentenced to life for the murder and 15 years for the attempted sexual battery to run consecutively. Right; Robert outside his home in Tampa, Florida, in October 2020. 2. Prosecutors in Hillsborough County, Fla., said Robert DuBoise, 55, had been wrongfully convicted. At his trial, in 1985, prosecutors said that Mr. DuBoise, his brother and a friend had been driving in Tampa when they saw Ms. Grams walking down the street, abducted her and raped and killed her. Thursday morning, the courtmoved to reduce DuBoises sentence to the exact amount of time he has already spent behind bars. In 1988, the Florida Supreme Court changed the sentence to life in prison. Case Summary. While the state is constitutionally obligated to provide the defense with key information related to the credibility of jailhouse informants, such as the benefits provided for their testimony, in many wrongful convictions this evidence is never disclosed. Convicted of murder and sentenced to death, his sentence was reduced in 1988 to life in prison until his exoneration and release last year. From a human point of view, of course, I feel terrible, Souviron reportedly said, adding: I played a part in his conviction. Including DuBoises case in the calculations, 22 of the 24 Florida exonerations for which the jurys sentencing vote is known (91.7%) have been in these cases. The dentist was Dr. Richard Souviron, who gained notoriety as an expert after testifying in the murder trial of serial killer Ted Bundy that one of his Florida victims had a bite mark that matched his teeth. DuBoise was released from prison on Aug. 27 after new DNA testing on evidence from the victims rape kit that was thought to have been destroyed, excluded him as the assailant and identified another individual. I am grateful to be here, now with a chance to move forward, but I know there are more innocent people like me still behind bars, said DuBoise. Earlier this month, however, a prosecutor in Hillsborough County, Fla., made a startling discovery: The county medical examiners office had preserved rape kit samples in the case that were not used in Mr. DuBoises trial. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. In the federal lawsuit filed this week, DuBoises attorneys name as defendants the city of Tampa, four police investigators and a forensic dentist who testified a bite mark on Grams cheek was from DuBoise based on a faulty beeswax mold made of his teeth. After a 2008 hearing, a judge concluded that even if the evidence was suitable for testing, it would not exonerate DuBoise because the states theory was that two other individuals participated in the crime. Im not sure it can get any worse other than all the men that came before him and were executed. Dr. Richard Souviron, a forensic odontologist, advised detectives to obtain bite mark impressions from potential suspects. Today, Robert finally has some measure of justice. Get an all-access pass to never-before-seen content, free digital evidence kits, and much more! Robert DuBoise, 56, was freed in August last year after long-shelved untested DNA evidence from a rape kit proved he was innocent of the rape and murder of 19-year-old Barbara Grams in Tampa. DuBoise, who spent three years on death row, was released from prison in August 2020 after DNA testing conclusively showed that he did not commit the slaying. You can check his/her address, phone number, email address, and other info on this page. Marshall provided support for the claim by quoting several lines from a speech Souviron gave just before DuBoises trial. Robert DuBoise following his exoneration after 37 years on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020, in Tampa, Florida. DuBoise maintained his innocence throughout his time in prison. DuBoise was found guilty and initially sentenced to death, according to the documents. According to the lawsuit, investigators initially focused on him after an attendant at a gas station across the street from where Grams was found told police three boys named Robert, Bo and Ray had been causing trouble. Robert S Dubois, 93. DuBoise will be the 171st documented death-row exoneration in the U.S. since 1973. Help us advocate for the innocent by sharing the latest news from the Innocence Project. All Rights Reserved. That process has since been abolished, Kamm said. We found 28 records for people named Robert Dubois in 25 cities in Florida throughout Titusville, Orlando, and 23 more cities! The basis for the claims are deprivation of due process, illegal detention and prosecution, and conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights, among other things. 2. His innocence was proven after a review of the case by the Hillsborough county state attorneys office and the Innocence Project, which works nationwide. Wrongful convictions deprive victims and their families of justice; they deserve the truthnot false closure based on a false story. The inmate claimed that DuBoise had confessed to raping and murdering Grams alongside two other men, Teresa Hall,supervising attorney for the Conviction Review Unit, saidin a. After hugging his mother, he spoke to an assemblage of reporters and cameras. On Wednesday, prosecutors said they had moved to free Mr. DuBoise by filing a joint motion with his lawyer to reduce his life sentence to time served. John Counsman, and forensic dentist Dr. Richard Souviron. Although DuBoise was the charged perpetrator, there was no other physical or circumstantial evidence connecting him to the attack. Website by MADEO. Alabama still allows trial judges to impose the death penalty based upon a jurys 10-2 or 11-1 vote for death. Email: [emailprotected] He denied receiving any benefit in exchange for his testimony. In the decades since, however, forensic experts have largely abandoned using bitemarks to identify suspects. All original evidence was thought to have been destroyed, as was noted by the court at an earlier time Soon after this discovery, DNA testing on the remaining evidence revealed positive identification of male DNA from the perpetrator and excluded Robert DuBoise as a contributor. (August 27, 2020 Tampa, Florida) Today, Robert DuBoise walked free after spending almost 37 years in prison for a 1983 rape and murder in Tampa, Florida, he did not commit. The inmate claimed that DuBoise had confessed to raping and murdering Grams alongside two other men, Teresa Hall,supervising attorney for the Conviction Review Unit, saidin a Thursday hearing. After cooperating with law enforcement and providing a sworn statement in DuBoises case, he was offered a plea and sentenced to five years in prison. View FREE Public Profile & Reputation for Robert Dubois in Titusville, FL - See Court Records | Photos | Address, Emails & Phone Number | Personal Review | $70 - $79,999 Income & Net Worth Robert DuBoise was convicted at a trial that relied on a testimony from an unreliable jailhouse informant and faulty bite-mark analysis. You can learn more about how we consider cases here. Based on a comparison of the impression and mold, Dr. Souviron determined DuBoise was a match to the mark left on the body and he was arrested immediately. Find Robert Dubois's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading people search directory for contact information and public records. DuBoise is represented by the Innocence Project, who worked collaboratively with the Conviction Review Unit at the Office of the State Attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Tampa. After 37 years behind bars, a Florida man was formally cleared on Monday of a 1983 rape and murder which DNA evidence proved he did not commit. After testifying in court against DuBoise and once a death sentence was secured, the informant received a further sentence reduction to time served and he was immediately released. was wrongfully convicted of raping and murdering a woman walked free Thursday after 37 years behind bars. On Sept. 11, 2020, the State filed its response asking that the Court find DuBoise innocent of the charges against him and to signify the Courts ruling as an exoneration of Mr. Robert DuBoise. The CRU also issued a Summary Fact Finding Report that stated that if Mr. DuBoise would be retried today, there would be clear and convincing evidence that he is innocent of the charges against him.. Knowing that such an egregious mistake could happen here is gut-wrenching.. For 37 years, weve had an innocent man locked up in prisonwhile the real perpetrator was never held accountable for this heinous crime. Its been 37 years, said Hillsborough county state attorney Andrew Warren. In 2020, through continued investigation and digging from the lead of the CRU and DuBoises counsel at the Innocence Project, slides of DNA from the original autopsy were discovered in storage at the office of the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner. The only physical evidence implicating Mr DuBoise was fabricated bitemark evidence that supposedly matched Mr DuBoise to an injury on the victims body. Within weeks, through the cooperation of the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit State Attorneys Office, the Innocence Project, and the local assistance of the Innocence Project of Florida, DuBoise was released from prison August 27, 2020, into the arms of his mother, Myra, his sister, Harriett, and his attorney Susan Friedman. Resides in Fort Walton Beach, FL . 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