Hugs and well wishes greeted Buffalo Five members John Walker and Darryl Boyd as they exited the courtroom Thursday morning. Judge Christopher Burns dismissed underlying charges against the two men related to their 1976 arrest and conviction on murder charges stemming from the death of William Crawford.
Burns’ dismissal comes a little over a month after he vacated Boyd and Walker’s original murder convictions.
Despite the string of good news an emotional Walker, who spent 22 years in prison and 18 more on parole, said there needs to be remuneration for having his life ruined for a crime he didn’t commit.
“What are we gonna do about it now? Just walk away?” he said. “Walk away from it after all my life you took from me? Let me just walk away and just keep living like I'm living after what all y’all done to me? Just walk away, right? Yeah, I'm gonna walk but I'm doing some thinking while I'm walking somewhere right here.”
Boyd and Walker spokesperson Sherry Sherrill said they will exhaust all legal means to see the two men are monetarily compensated for their hardship.
“There has to be legal recourse. Wrongful convictions are an injustice,” she said. “The courts in the United States are supposed to be the guardians and the protectors of freedom. They are not. Wrongful convictions steal, dignity, relationship, time, opportunity and freedom from wrongly convicted persons. There are many wrongful convictions that happen but for Lynn DeJac, $5.3 million, for Anthony Capozzi, $4.25 million, was at the end of their long journey to justice."
Lynn DeJac and Anthony Capozzi were two local individuals who received monetary restitution in civil lawsuits against the state of New York after wrongful murder convictions.
