Norma Padgett, who falsely accused 'Groveland Four' of rape, dies at 92

July 31 (UPI) -- The Florida woman who set off a wave of racial violence after falsely accusing four Black men -- known as the "Groveland Four" -- of raping her and beating her husband more than seven decades ago has died at the age of 92.

Norma Padgett died at her home of natural causes in Butler, Ga., on July 12, according to a spokesperson for the probate court in Taylor County, Ga. Padgett, who was White, never recanted her story and insisted at the age of 86, "I'm not no liar."

Padgett was 17-years-old in 1949 when she accused Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin, Charles Greenlee and Ernest Thomas of attacking her husband, forcing her into their car at gunpoint and raping her in Lake County, Fla.

What followed was a massive manhunt that ended with Thomas being shot and killed. Shepherd, Irvin and Greenlee were arrested and coerced to confess. During the trial, defense attorneys were not allowed to bring in witnesses or evidence to prove innocence, leading to their conviction by an all-White jury.

Greenlee was sentenced to life in prison because he was 16 at the time.

While Shepherd and Irvin were sentenced to death, their convictions were overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court . As they were being transported from a state prison for a second trial, the county Sheriff Willis McCall claimed they tried to escape and shot both of them on the side of the road, where Shepherd died. Irvin, who survived, said they never tried to escape.

Greenlee was paroled in 1962 and Irvin in 1968. Irvin was found dead a year later, officially of natural causes. Greenlee died in 2012 at the age of 79.

Decades later after evidence emerged disputing Padgett's allegations, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an official posthumous pardon for the four men in 2019.

"For seventy years, these four men have had their history wrongly written for crimes they did not commit," DeSantis said. "For the Groveland Four, the truth was buried. The perpetrators celebrated. But justice has cried out from that day until this."

Padgett spoke out against exoneration during the clemency hearing.

"I'm beggin' y'all not to give them pardon because they done it. Your minds might be made up. I don't know. If you do, ya'll going to be just like them, and that's all I got to say, 'cause I know I'm telling the truth. I went to court twice," Padgett claimed.

Two years later, a Florida district court formally cleared Greenlee, Irvin, Shepherd and Thomas, and dismissed all charges against them.

"I've always believed that the story of the Groveland Four was not a matter of right vs. left, but rather right vs. wrong," Gilbert King, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Devil in the Grove , said in 2018.

"So I'm inspired by how politicians in Florida have come together, in a bipartisan manner, to recognize and correct the record of this gross injustice. This case has always been about 'Equal Justice Under Law,' which is a societal ideal that all Americans can agree on."