Cole Warrant: Dozier School for Boys
Cole’s warrant is bringing attention to the Dozier School for Boys, a school that was run by the State between 1900 and 2011 for students who needed “reform" but was ultimately shut down due to abuse.
Gov. DeSantis has issued a warrant for Loran Cole’s execution, which has been scheduled for August 29 at 6:00 p.m. Cole’s successive motion for postconviction relief (covered here) is pending in the circuit court, which must issue its ruling by Friday afternoon. Late yesterday, the Court issued an Order indicating that it will not hold an evidentiary hearing on Cole’s claims.
Cole’s warrant is bringing attention to the Dozier School for Boys, a school that was run by the State between 1900 and 2011 for students who needed “reform.” The school was ultimately shut down due to child abuse and other issues.
Dozier School for Boys
Florida’s Dozier School for Boys opened in 1900 and was a “reform school in the small panhandle town of Mariana.” The New York Times reported that the school “housed children as young as 5 committed for criminal and other offenses, including truancy and ‘incorrigibility.’” Florida courts would send children there upon being convicted. Another article indicates that other students went to Dozier “for running away from home or because they didn't have families.” While Dozier “initially also housed girls, they were sent to a separate reform school for girls beginning in 1913.” In Jim Crow Florida, Dozier was segregated into two campuses until 1968. In 1955, “[a]nother similar school, the Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee, opened “to address overcrowding at Dozier,” according to the New York Times.
Survivors tell stories of beatings with leather belts, students being tied to to a bed, students being put in dryers, forced labor, and rape. News articles indicate that between 80 and 100 children died at the school, but the location of their remains is unknown. A graveyard near the school has several unmarked crosses, which survivors believe “mark the graves of boys who were killed at the school, victims of punishments that went too far.”
After decades of the school being in operation, survivors began publicly telling stories of the abuse they suffered while attending the school. (Survivors are known as The White House Boys.) These stories prompted authorities to investigate. In 2008, Florida Governor Charlie Crist “directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the Dozier School and the deaths alleged there.” NPR reported that “[t]he Florida Department of Law Enforcement interviewed the White House Boys and former staff but said it couldn't find enough evidence to support the allegations. . . . The state report also found no evidence indicating a staff member was responsible for any student deaths.”
Ultimately, the school was closed in 2012 following a federal investigation, and “lawmakers gave a formal apology to the survivors in 2017.”
In 2023, a memorial was erected “to recognize the sexual and physical abuse they suffered while wards of the state more than 50 years [prior],” according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Sources
Florida’s Dozier School for Boys: A True Horror Story, NPR (Oct. 15, 2012).
Florida to Pay Millions to Victims of Abuses at Notorious Reform School, N.Y. Times (June 21, 2024).
DeSantis signs bill that will provide $20 million in compensation to Dozier School for Boys victims, Fla. Phoenix (June 21, 2024).
White House Boys thankful for Dozier memorial but continue to search for justice, Tallahassee Democrat (Jan. 14, 2023).
Recent Legislation for Survivors
In June of this year, Gov. DeSantis signed legislation that will provide compensation to survivors of Dozier. An article from the Florida Phoenix in June reported:
The law (HB 21) signed by the governor on Friday morning will divide $20 million in compensation between those who attended the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in North Florida between 1940 and 1975, as well as the Okeechobee School, another state-based institution known for its abusive nature.
According to a bill analysis, there were reports of children being chained to walls in irons, brutal whippings, and peonage at Dozier as early as 1901. In the first 13 years of operation, six state-led investigations took place. After former Dozier School students began to publish accounts of the abuse, their complaints gained traction.
Under the law, “only those who were confined to the Dozier School for Boys or the Okeechobee School between 1940 and 1975 are eligible; personal representatives or estates of those who attended the school but have died ‘may not file an application for or receive compensation.’” The State is accepting applications until December 31, 2024.
It has been mentioned that there are “400 living survivors of the two institutions who are eligible to be compensated,” but one survivor suspects that “far fewer than that are still alive.”
NOTE: Because Cole attended Dozier in 1984, he would not be eligible for compensation under this legislation.
Sources
Florida’s Dozier School for Boys: A True Horror Story, NPR (Oct. 15, 2012).
Florida to Pay Millions to Victims of Abuses at Notorious Reform School, N.Y. Times (June 21, 2024).
DeSantis signs bill that will provide $20 million in compensation to Dozier School for Boys victims, Fla. Phoenix (June 21, 2024).
Cole’s Attendance at Dozier
Cole is a survivor of Dozier, and the abuse he endured while at the school has been an issue in the litigation over his death sentence throughout the years. It is likewise the basis for one of his three claims in his pending successive postconviction motion—as TFDP covered yesterday.
Cole attended Dozier from June 1 to November 14, 1984, at the age of 17. (As noted above, Cole would not be eligible for compensation under the new legislation.) In 2010, after watching a PBS show about Dozier that triggered his suppressed memories, Cole raised a claim of newly discovered evidence based on his suppressed memories from Dozier, which also triggered suppressed memories of childhood abuse. Cole has stated several times in court papers that he “witnessed rapes and beatings” and “was subjected to tortuous treatment” while at Dozier. The motion Cole filed this week ahead of his scheduled execution stated that Cole tried to escape shortly after arriving at Dozier.
He was captured, and the staff punished him by breaking both his legs. He continued to suffer torturous treatment throughout his time at Dozier. Cole estimates that he experienced beatings 2 to 3 times a week. Some beatings were for reasons like stealing food, trying to run away, and for such trivialities as walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk. While at Dozier, under the care and supervision of Florida, Cole was anally raped by a guard named D.J. Pittman. On another particularly traumatic occasion, a dog raped Cole and oversaw by a guard named “Randy.” Shortly before Cole was released from Dozier, he had to clean up the remains of guts and brains from another child, who jumped off the roof of one of the cottages.
Cole’s Initial Brief following the trial court’s denial of his postconviction motion argued that Cole’s “post 1984 criminal record also goes to show the effect that life in Dozier had on his psyche. That horrible place helped create the Loran Cole who sits on death row today.”
Briefing also indicates that Cole was diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and PTSD by a mental health professional at UCI (where Florida’s death row is housed) after he confided in her about his suppressed memories.
Other Florida Death Row Prisoners Who Attended Dozier
Caselaw indicates that other Florida death row prisoners also attended Dozier. In fact, Cole’s motion filed this week that an expert on Dozier “discovered that 174 of the 180 boys who graduated [from Dozier] in 1988 were subsequently rearrested.”
Richard Gibson
Richard Gibson was sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in 1975. On direct appeal, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence.
Evidence presented at trial shows:
Juvenile: On February 2, 1962, Gibson was found incorrigible, growing up in idleness and crime, after he had stolen a panel truck from the Arnold Company, 38 East Union Street. On February 2, 1962, Gibson was found guilty of Breaking and Entering and stealing from the Florida Business College, 1214 Jessie Street. While Gibson was being held in custody on these charges in Duval County, he escaped. On September 6, 1962, Gibson was arrested as a Runaway and charged with stealing a 1955 Ford for which he was found guilty and sentenced to the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, Marianna, Florida, to remain no longer than January 7, 1968. Gibson remained at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys for eight and one-half months and then was released. On November 6, 1963, Gibson was arrested for Robbery having stolen $12.50 from the store of Elizabeth Clinger, 354 East 21st Street. Gibson was given a suspended sentence on the condition that he leave Duval County for a period of not less than one year.1
He was later resentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2014. Gibson may have been eligible for compensation under the legislation if he were still alive.
Gregory Mills
Gregory Mills was convicted of first-degree murder in 1979. He was sentenced to death in 1980 based on judicial override, meaning the jury recommended a sentence of life in prison and the trial court nevertheless sentenced him to death.2 The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his sentence of death on direct appeal.
In postconviction litigation, Mills requested records from Dozier School for Boys, suggesting he attended the school.
In 2001, Governor Jeb Bush signed a death warrant scheduling Mills’ execution for May 2, 2001.3 The Florida Supreme Court denied relief in a decision dated April 25, 2001.
The trial court then stayed Mills’ execution based on his claim that “newly discovered information established that impermissible ex parte communications occurred between the State and the sentencing judge during Mills' initial postconviction proceedings.”4 The trial court granted him a new sentencing proceeding based on “newly discovered evidence establish[ing] the codefendant, and not Mills, was the triggerman in the underlying murder, thus warranting a new trial or a life sentence.”5 The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the new sentencing, and the case was remanded.
Mills was later resentenced to life in prison and remains in custody.
Kristopher Sanders
Kristopher Sanders was originally sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in 1994 following a jury’s recommendation for death by a vote of 8-4. In the penalty phase, Sanders presented evidence that he “had been admitted to the Arthur Dozier School for Boys.”
In 1998, on direct appeal, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his conviction of first-degree of murder but vacated his sentence of death and remanded for resentencing. On remand, Sanders was resentenced to life in prison when the State agreed to not pursue the death penalty. He remains in custody.
William Sweet
William Sweet was sentenced to death for crimes that occurred in 1990 following a jury’s recommendation for death by a vote of 10-2. In August 1993, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentence of death on direct appeal. His sentence of death became final in 1994.
At trial, his family member testified “that Sweet got into trouble a number of times as a juvenile and was sent away to the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.”6
Sweet remains on Florida’s death row.
Craig Wall
Craig Wall was sentenced to death after pleading guilty to first-degree murder in 2015. His sentence of death became final in 2018.
Wall attended Dozier School for Boys at age 15. While at Dozier, he “was taken to the emergency room for stitches to close a wound.”7 He went to adult prison at the age of 18.
Wall remains on Florida’s death row.
News Articles
Brian Burns, Florida Death Row Inmate Cites Abuse at Dozier School for Boys in Appeal for Clemency, Tampa Free Press (Aug. 7, 2024).
Dara Kam, Death Penalty Appeal Cites Dozier Abuse, News Serv. Fla. (Aug. 7, 2024).
My thoughts are with everyone involved in the warrant and execution process.
TFDP Prior Coverage of the Cole Warrant
Gibson v. State, 351 So. 2d 948, n.6 (Fla. 1977).
Mills v. Moore, 786 So. 2d 532, 533 (Fla. 2001).
Mills v. State, 786 So. 2d 547, 548 (Fla. 2001).
State v. Mills, 788 So. 2d 249, 250 (Fla. 2001).
Id.
Sweet v. State, 810 So. 2d 854, 864 (Fla. 2002).
Wall v. State, 238 So. 3d 127, 137 (Fla. 2018).
I believe the evidence speaks for itself here.. to have at least 6 former "students" of this hell hole end up on death row says volumes. Anyone who has bothered to look into the atrocities that occurred for over a century at this place, literally from the time of its opening right up to it's bitter end, surely has no doubt that a great number of lives were unnecessarily ruined by it-- and by the sadistic people it employed as a rule. When noting the sources used in this article, I could see that none of the first person accounts were consulted, which is disappointing, because if they had been, I doubt the tone would have been as lackluster as it seems to me. Nor would certain facts have been glossed over and minimized-- such as the misleading statements about the graves found on the Dozier site.. To say there were a few is an understatement, there were 31 crosses (with no names) marking grave sites in the so-called cemetery, and 55 bodies were actually uncovered there, as well as many more being found in various other locations on the premises. They have even identified many of them now. So I am less been impressed with the coverage here. It definitely could have been more thorough. Also, there are no words strong enough to properly condemn the hypocrisy of Governor DeSantis, who has shown himself to be unfit for the office in every way. That the State of Florida was and is complicit in any and all crimes committed by former residents of this torture camp, Cole included, should be considered a given. Therefore, for the same state to execute any of these people is a miscarriage of Justice-- not that the death penalty isn't always, in every case. It's time people realized that state sponsored violence can only breed more violence, and that no sane, just or civilized society would tolerate such depravity. Any legislator who defends or upholds such an institution should immediately be removed and, when appropriate, subject to legal ramifications of their own. The White House boys certainly deserve better than a few paltry reparations.. they deserve real justice.