A man who was wrongly incarcerated for 16 years in Florida before being exonerated and released was fatally shot by a sheriff's deputy in Georgia during a traffic stop Monday, officials said. Leonard Cure, 53, was convicted of armed robbery in Florida in 2003, according to the Broward County State Attorney's Office. In 2020, he was the first person to be exonerated as part of the state attorney's office Conviction Review Unit after a reinvestigation of the case found he was innocent.
Since his release, Cure had been working a job in security. He had hoped to go to college and work in broadcast radio production, and he was buying his first home, the state attorney's office said.
But just three years after his release, Cure was fatally shot Monday morning by a Camden County deputy during a traffic stop on northbound Interstate 95, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.
Cure got out of the car at the deputy’s request and complied with commands “until learning that he was under arrest,” the GBI said.
He refused to comply with the deputy’s requests after that, and the deputy used a Taser. Cure “assaulted the deputy,” prompting the deputy to use the Taser for a second time and a baton, but “Cure still did not comply,” authorities said.
The deputy then pulled out a gun and shot Cure. He was treated by EMS and died later, the GBI said.
It’s not clear what led to the traffic stop or why Cure was being placed under arrest.
The GBI said it will conduct an independent investigation. From there, the case will be handed to the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for review.
The Innocence Project of Florida, which helped reinvestigate his case, said Cure was killed as he was on his way to his suburban residence in Georgia from visiting his mother in Florida.
“Lenny was a great person who had already lost 16 years of his life to wrongful incarceration. And now this. He and his family deserved better. Lenny’s life mattered. We are completely devastated,” the organization wrote on its website.
Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor mourned his death Tuesday.
“The Leonard we knew was a smart, funny and kind person,” Pryor said in a statement. After Cure's release, he visited the prosecutor’s office and participated in training to help staff members "do their jobs in the fairest and most thorough way possible," he said.
“He would frequently call to check in on Assistant State Attorney Arielle Demby Berger, the head of the Conviction Review Unit, and offer our team encouragement to continue to do the important work of justice,” Pryor continued.
Pryor said Cure was "excited" that the Florida Legislature and governor had “recently approved his claims bill.”
In June, he was approved for $817,000 in compensation from the state for his wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
The Conviction Review Unit received a petition from Cure about his imprisonment in December 2019 and began a review with the assistance of the Innocence Project of Florida.
In the review, the state attorney’s office said it had “serious concerns” about Cure’s guilt and continued incarceration, and he was released on April 14, 2020.
In the reinvestigation, the Conviction Review Unit found that an ATM receipt proved that Cure was “miles away from the crime scene at the time of the robbery,” the Innocence Project said in a statement. The reinvestigation also found that a photo array shown to one of the victims included "multiple photos" of Cure and "was therefore an unreliable, suggestive identification procedure."
Prosecutors continued to look into his case and presented their findings to the Independent Review Panel. The panel and the state attorney’s office concluded Cure was innocent, and his conviction was overturned in December 2020.