Ten months after a New York State judge threw out their 1977 convictions for the murder of William Crawford, attorneys for Buffalo Five members John Walker and Darryl Boyd are suing the City of Buffalo and Erie County to the tune of $224 million.
The 10-count lawsuit alleges, in part, Buffalo homicide detectives withheld evidence and coerced another individual into false statements that led Walker and Boyd serving a combined 50 years in prison.
Standing outside City Hall Thursday flanked by supporters, Boyd was thankful for those who never get gave up on them but has lingering questions about his circumstances.
“I always ask myself, 'Man, why was you kidnapped and then framed?'” he said. “And then after that, unlawfully detained and then after that put through suffer and pain and misery, and then only be returned back to the location where I was kidnapped from to be up under the supervision of the rope. I just want to know what's going on with this.”
Of the $224 million, attorney are seeking $112 million for each man. Boyd’s attorney Joel Rudin explained how they came to that number.
“There are some cases around the country where juries have awarded as much as $3 million in damages for individuals who were wrongfully incarcerated,” he said. “And so we multiply Darryl’s 28 years by three, and we added a $1 million per year for punitive damages, because as we claim in the lawsuit, the detectives in the case acted intentionally and they are they're a states who are named in the lawsuit should be held liable for punitive damages as well.”
Rudin said he is hopeful the city and Erie County will decide to settle the cases but is prepared for them to fight the litigation.
