Robert DuBoise, sentenced over a 1983 rape and murder he did not commit, says he hopes others in his position now ‘get justice’

A Tampa, Florida, man who has been authorized to receive $14m for spending nearly four decades in prison over a rape and murder which he did not commit says he hopes his case makes it easier for the unjustly convicted to achieve justice before it’s too late for them.

“I’m just grateful,” Robert DuBoise told the New York Times of the compensation that Tampa’s city council voted to pay him to settle a lawsuit over his wrongful conviction. He said he hoped others in his position now “get justice and can move on without having to spend the rest of their life fighting the system that has already wronged them”.

DuBoise was 18 at the time that 19-year-old Barbara Grams was raped and beaten to death as she walked home from her Tampa restaurant job in August 1983. A medical examiner determined that someone had bitten Grams on one of her cheeks, prompting investigators to take bite samples from multiple men, including DuBoise.

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This is just the very first result in a litany of numerous results in a quick internet search for this. It seems there is no shortage of research on this topic available for you to read directly without my potential contamination of it. But, here’s a preview for you. Hope this helps.

    A 2021 meta-analysis conducted by international scholars from Spain, Bulgaria, Sweden and the UK found a significant portion of the human population to be psychopaths as defined by the PCL-R.

    The meta-analytical results obtained allow us to estimate the prevalence rate of psychopathy in the general adult population at 4.5%.

    Regarding the significance of psychopathy among people found guilty of a crime or incarcerated, they mention:

    the personality and behavior of offenders with a diagnosis of psychopathy are very different from those of other offenders.

    It’s important to note that I am not espousing a “version of justice” as you put it. My concern is simply with segregating harmful people from potential victims to prevent additional harm.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      Science has discovered many (primarily) men in leadership roles (politics, business, etc) are sociopaths.

      Does that mean they’re supposed to be jailed as well … because nothing you’ve listed there talks about that.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        The claim isn’t that psychopaths must be jailed. It’s that psychopaths must be jailed when they engage in criminal behavior, because the non-jailing methods for rehabilitating people don’t work in psychopaths.