December 17, 2021

The Broward State Attorney’s Office has been awarded $218,785 in federal grant funding – in partnership with The Innocence Project of Florida – to expand the work of our Conviction Review Unit.

The state attorney’s office and the Innocence Project worked together to obtain funding for the Partners in Justice for Scientific Review Project and were awarded a grant that totals $300,000 over two years from the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance. The bulk of the money goes to our Conviction Review Unit and the remainder will go to the Innocence Project, which is a nonprofit organization. Another portion will be used for expert consultations on emerging areas of science and technology.

The goal of the project is to review cases that used forensic methods or experts that may now be questionable or lack scientific validity. The project also expands the capacity of the Conviction Review Unit to investigate and resolve wrongful convictions in Broward County.

The Conviction Review Unit and the Innocence Project worked together on the unit’s first exoneration of Leonard Cure. After a preliminary review of that case, the prosecutor in charge of the unit asked the Innocence Project to assist Mr. Cure. The Broward State Attorney’s Office is supporting a claims bill, sponsored by state Rep. Michael Gottlieb and state Sen. Shevrin Jones, to compensate Mr. Cure for his wrongful incarceration.

The new scientific review project was inspired by the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office exoneration of Robert DuBoise in 2020. The use of bite mark evidence in that case prompted an effort to identify and review any comparable cases in Broward County.

The grant will be used, in part, to hire a second full-time assistant state attorney for the Conviction Review Unit and to pay for a portion of the salary of the Innocence Project’s executive director.

More information about the grant is available here.

More information about the Broward State Attorney’s Office Conviction Review Unit is available here.

Leonard Cure, the first person exonerated and freed by the Conviction Review Unit of the Broward State Attorney’s Office, and Arielle Demby Berger, the assistant state attorney in charge of the unit. Demby Berger reviewed his petition, reinvestigated the case, and handled the exoneration process. They were photographed when Mr. Cure visited our Fort Lauderdale office earlier this year.

Contact: Paula McMahon, spokeswoman for the Broward State Attorney’s Office
mediarelations@sao17.state.fl.us or 954-831-7910
https://browardsao.com