Walter Irvin

Who was Walter Irvin?

Walter Lee Irvin was born in Lake County, Florida. He served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1949, he and three other black men were accused of raping a white woman in Groveland, Florida. They were given the name Groveland Four by the newspapers. Three men, including Irvin, were arrested, and one man was hunted down by a posse and killed while purportedly attempting to escape. Orlando attorney, Franklin Williams, was told by the surviving suspects that deputies had beaten them while making them stand on broken glass, hands tied to a pipe above their heads. Sheriff Willis V. McCall's deputies have been accused of manufacturing evidence in this case and others to win convictions. Irvin and another accused, Samuel Shepherd, were found guilty of rape and sentenced to death.

However, in 1951 a legal team headed by Thurgood Marshall was successful in getting this case overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, and a retrial was ordered. While transporting Shepherd and Irvin from state prison to county jail for retrial, Sheriff McCall shot them both while they were shackled to each other. The Sheriff claimed "that they jumped him in an escape attempt". Samuel Shepherd was declared dead on the scene. Walter Irvin survived and accused the Sheriff of attempted murder in cold blood. The Sheriff was never indicted or suspended from office as a result of this incident.