All About Florida Native Leonard Cure 

Leonard Cure ( age 53, 1970 – October 16, 2023) was a Florida resident, met an untimely end on October 16, 2023, during a traffic stop in Camden County, Georgia.

Leonard’s life had already been marked by injustice. He had spent more than 16 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit until he was finally exonerated in 2020. His story of being wrongly imprisoned is truly heartbreaking.

Right now, a separate agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, is looking into what exactly happened during this traffic stop. Here’s what we know so far:

The situation began when a police officer in Camden County pulled Leonard over for driving faster than the speed limit. He was going at least 90 miles per hour in a 70-mph zone. Initially, Leonard was cooperating, but things took a terrible turn when the officer decided to arrest him.

Unfortunately, things went from bad to worse. Leonard didn’t follow the officer’s orders, and the officer resorted to using a Taser and a baton to try to control him. The situation escalated, and tragically, the officer ended up using a gun, resulting in Leonard’s tragic death.

The officer involved has been placed on leave while the incident is under investigation, but we don’t have all the details about the officer or their past work history at this time.

Leonard Allan Cure was notable for being the first person declared innocent by the Broward State Attorney’s Office Conviction Review Unit. The Innocence Project of Florida had fervently championed his cause throughout his legal battle.

Wrongfully Convicted

Back in November 2003, a Walgreens store in Dania Beach, Florida, was robbed. The only witnesses were two employees, Ashraf Rizk and Kathy Venhuizen.

Here’s what happened: A guy with a gun burst into the store early in the morning, scared Rizk, and stole $1,700. Rizk saw the guy in the parking lot before the robbery. When Rizk opened the store, the guy attacked him, and then he took the money from the safe. Kathy came in at 7:15 a.m., and the robber left around 7:24 a.m.

Two days later, both Rizk and Kathy talked to the police to describe the robber. But there’s a twist: Kathy described the robber as a Black man, around 5’8″ tall, stocky, and with missing teeth. Rizk didn’t remember the missing teeth.

A week later, they were shown a lineup of pictures to identify the suspect. Kathy picked a guy named Leonard Cure, but Rizk wasn’t sure if Cure had the same skin color as the robber. The lineup they used had more than one picture of Leonard Cure, and it was put together all wrong from a police database.

On November 20, 2003, the police arrested Leonard Cure, thinking he was the robber. They also took some black clothes as possible evidence. But in May 2004, a judge said the police couldn’t use the clothes as evidence because they didn’t get permission.

Even though the lineup was messed up, the judge still believed Rizk and Kathy, and Leonard Cure got into serious trouble. In August 2004, Leonard Cure had a trial. There wasn’t any strong proof connecting him to the robbery, just what the witnesses said, and their stories didn’t match up.

Even though there wasn’t much evidence, Leonard Cure said he didn’t do it and had proof he was somewhere else when the robbery happened. But the jury couldn’t agree, so the trial continued. After the trial, they offered Leonard Cure a deal: if he admitted to the crime, he’d spend seven years in prison. But he said no because he knew he was innocent.

A few weeks later, the next trial started. Rizk, one of the store workers, now said he wasn’t completely sure if Leonard Cure was the robber. But even with this doubt, the jury found Cure guilty. As a result, Leonard Cure got a life sentence for using a gun to rob and threaten someone.

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