ORLANDO, Fla. — A conversation hosted by the Central Florida Urban League was held Tuesday night in Orlando to discuss the racial and social impacts of the "Groveland Four" pardon earlier this year.

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Spectrum News Anchor Tammie Fields moderated the panel of writers, religious leaders, and legal experts as they discussed racism and religious prejudice throughout Central Florida, most notably in the Groveland Four case.

The Groveland Four consisted of four African American Lake County men who were wrongly accused of raping a white woman in the 1940s.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and a Florida clemency board pardoned the men posthumously in January. But the niece of one of the Groveland Four says the men should be exonerated.

"It just doesn't stop at the pardon. It has to go to the exoneration, because there's a difference. If you're pardoned, a thief can be pardoned, a guilty person can be pardoned,” said Marlyn Frieson, Samuel Shepard’s niece. “Exoneration states that they never should have been accused, because they never did it."

The panelists also discussed the recent rise of violence at places of worship, both in the U.S. and internationally.