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The Case of Robert DuBoise
📻 Episode #304
🎙️ Hosted by Guest Host Gilbert King
📅 Oct 31, 2022
About This Episode
On August 19, 1983, a 19-year-old woman was found raped and beaten to death in Tampa, FL. Police focused on 18-year-old Robert DuBoise who allegedly “caused problems” in the area. Dr. Richard Souviron, a forensic odontologist, matched Robert’s teeth to a supposed bite mark on the victim’s cheek using bite mark analysis techniques that have…
Case status as carried in this site's original 2026 profiles. Independent record verification is rolling out episode by episode — statuses are being re-checked against court and registry sources and date-stamped as verified.
The Case
On August 19, 1983, a 19-year-old woman was found raped and beaten to death in Tampa, FL. Police focused on 18-year-old Robert DuBoise who allegedly “caused problems” in the area. Dr. Richard Souviron, a forensic odontologist, matched Robert’s teeth to a supposed bite mark on the victim’s cheek using bite mark analysis techniques that have since been discredited. Based on the supposed dental match, Robert was ultimately sentenced to death.
Gilbert King is the writer and host of the Lava For Good podcast, Bone Valley. He is also a New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the book Devil in the Grove. Gilbert has written about race, civil rights, and the death penalty for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Marshall Project.
While in Florida working on the Lava for Good podcast Bone Valley, Gilbert learned of Robert’s exoneration, which moved and inspired Gilbert to continue the fight for other innocent individuals. Robert and Leo Schofield, the subject of Bone Valley, were incarcerated together in the same Florida facility. In this episode, Gilbert and Robert connect over their ties to the Tampa area and the Florida criminal justice system.
https://lavaforgood.com/podcast/145-wrongful-conviction-junk-science-bite-mark-evidence/
https://innocenceproject.org/petitions/help-fix-floridas-compensation-law/
This episode is part of a special series in our Wrongful Conviction podcast feed of 15 episodes focused on individual cases of wrongful incarceration, guest hosted by formerly incarcerated returning citizens and leading criminal justice advocates, award-winning journalists and progressive influencers.
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:05:56“Speaker 2: in the nineteen eighties. Speaker 4: Yeah, So, you know, we today know that fitemark evidence Speaker 4: has been wholly discredited. Not only has the National Academy Speaker 4: of Sciences, who did a review of this type of Speaker 4: evidence back in two thousand and nine, even the ABFO,”
00:22:33“Speaker 3: the next morning. They got a transport to take me Speaker 3: to Death Row at two thirty in the morning. Speaker 2: And what was that like? You were rivaling, you know, Speaker 2: at this age, arriving at you know, Florida's most notorious Speaker 2: death row. What was that like? I mean, could you”
00:38:28“Speaker 2: like being free, finally walking out of there. Speaker 3: Oh? Man, it's undescribable, you know, to actually walk out Speaker 3: of that prison and know that that was it. The Speaker 3: nightmare is finally over. Speaker 2: Robert. What has it been like since your release?”
Listen to the Episode
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🎧 Full episode page — Lava for Good
Resources & links from the episode:
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← #303 Billie Allen #305 Raymond Allan Warren →
Also on the podcast: #28 Robert Jones · #116 False Confessions - Robert Davis · #263 Robert Foxworth