(Reuters) – Monday’s posthumous exoneration of four Black men from Florida, the “Groveland Four,” who were wrongly accused 72 years ago of raping a young white girl during Jim Crow era Southern U.S. racial separation.

Heidi Davis, Lake County Circuit Court judge, took the final steps in Charles Greenlee’s, Walter Irvin’s, Sam Shepherd’s and Ernest Thomas cases. The last victim was gunned by a posse just before going to trial. In 2019, the four men were officially and posthumously pardoned.

Davis rescinded the sentences and judgments of Irvin & Greenlee, and dismissed all indictments against the two others.

Florida State Attorney Bill Gladson stated in a motion to exonerate them. He said that newly discovered evidence brought into question whether rape occurred and strongly suggested, “The sheriff, judge and prosecutor almost ensured guilty verdicts for this case.”

Gladson said that he and his team followed the evidence in order to find out where they were leading them. He spoke at a Monday news conference.

Gilbert King’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Devil in the Grove” (Gilbert King’s Pulitzer Prize winner) caught the attention of the public and renewed interest in the Groveland Four.

Thomas, who was accused of sexually assaulting and abducting 17-year old girl near Groveland in Florida, was captured by over 1000 men. He was also shot 400 times.

In 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the convictions of Shepherd & Irvin. They were defended in part by Thurgood Marshall of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice.

Willis McCall from Lake County shot Shepherd and the men as they were being taken to court. McCall said they were fleeing.

Irvin was tried again and convicted. In 1968, he was released on parole and was found dead in suspicious circumstances a year later.

Greenlee was paroled in 1960s and died in 2012.

According to the woman, who was accused of being raped by men when she was 17, she opposed pardons for 2019, claiming that she wasn’t a lie.