Twice-elected Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren joined Shelley and attorney Matt Newton to discuss the Robert DuBois exoneration and Warren’s efforts to return to his job. DuBois is the subject of The Marked Man, a multi-part feature article in the Tampa Bay Times that follows the miscarriage of justice that resulted in DuBois serving 37 years in Florida State Prison, including several years on Death Row awaiting execution for a murder he did not commit, his ultimate exoneration, and the resulting investigation that brought the real killers to justice. Warren emphasized that without the investigation into DuBois’ questionable conviction, there would never have been a reopening of the murder investigation that led to the arrest and prosecution of the men who have been found to have committed another murder, in addition to the one that DuBois was prosecuted for. Warren credits the Conviction Review Unit and law enforcement for making the community safer from this pair of serial killers. He maintains that a robust Conviction Review Unit is an asset to community safety and the pursuit of justice.
Sadly, it appears that the Conviction Review Unit under the regime of DeSantis’ Republican political appointee, Suzy Lopez, is all but dead now. Though Lopez claims that her office has exonerated other additional individuals since she took over the office, reports from the legal community suggest that she has not staffed the Unit and rather than exonerate deserving defendants, she has negotiated their release from prison on the condition that the defendants enter “no contest pleas” which allow her office to maintain their convictions while those defendants continue to suffer the collateral consequences of a conviction.
DuBois’ exoneration was the result of cooperation between Warren’s office’s Conviction Review Unit and the legal team at the Innocence Project of Florida. Warren’s suspension and removal from his office has been condemned by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals as an unconstitutional political move by the Governor, and Warren is awaiting the his reinstatement now. While he waits for his litigation to wind its way through the court system, Andrew Warren is running for reelection against the DeSantis appointee, Suzy Lopez. They will be on your Hillsborough County ballot in November, 2024.
Listen to the show here. Read more about the DuBois exoneration and the investigation that found the actual murderers in the Tampa Bay Times .
