Biography
Walter Irvin was one of the Groveland Four, young Black men accused of raping a white woman in Lake County, Florida in 1949 in a case built on coerced confessions and mob terror. Convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to death, he won a new trial from the U.S. Supreme Court; while Sheriff Willis McCall was transporting him and Samuel Shepherd, handcuffed, in November 1951, McCall shot them both, killing Shepherd and gravely wounding Irvin, then claimed an escape attempt. Irvin survived, was reconvicted and again sentenced to death, later commuted to life; he was paroled in 1968 and posthumously exonerated decades later.
One of the Groveland Four. WWII Army veteran. Sentenced to death; commuted to life by Gov. LeRoy Collins 1955; paroled 1968. Defended on retrial by Thurgood Marshall. Shot point-blank by Sheriff Willis V. McCall on November 6, 1951 while handcuffed during transport; survived by playing dead.
