Wrongly convicted man awarded $28M after civil trial in Rochester
A Buffalo man who spent 21 years in prison before his murder conviction was overturned was awarded $28 million by a federal jury in Rochester Tuesday.
The civil suit of John Walker Jr., wrongly convicted of murder, was tried in federal court in Rochester, which is part of the same federal court district as is Buffalo. The verdict and award came after a three-week trial against Erie County.
Walker, then 16, was one of five teenagers accused in the 1976 murder of 62-year-old William Crawford on Buffalo's East Side. The case has been likened to the notorious "Central Park Five" case, in which five New York City teenagers were wrongly accused and convicted of the brutal assault of a jogger in Central Park. The five were exonerated when the real criminal admitted to the assault and DNA evidence proved his guilt.
In the Buffalo case, one teenager initially testified against the others. Joel Rudin, an attorney for Walker, said the teen was pressured into false testimony and promised immunity. That individual testified in the federal civil trial that he had been forced to lie.
"They took very vulnerable teenagers back at a time of tremendous racial tension and coerced one of them into accusing his friends in order to save himself," Rudin said. The teens were Black and the victim white.
"He talked about how he's had to live with this shame for 47 years," Rudin said.
Rudin represented Walker along with attorneys Ross Firsenbaum, Spencer Durland and others from Buffalo and New York City law firms. They also represent another of the men convicted of the murder, Darry Boyd, who died in late February. Boyd's civil trial is scheduled to go ahead with a videotaped deposition, Rudin said. The City of Buffalo earlier settled with Boyd and Walker for a total of $8.6 million.
Two others of the Buffalo Five have also died. One was acquitted at trial.
There was no physical evidence to tie the teens to the murder and they had alibis that were challenged by police. Court records show that there were other serious suspects in the murder but they were largely ignored after the teen's statement linking his friends to the homicide.
Also, evidence was withheld from the defense that could have helped prove the innocence of the teens.
The convictions were overturned in 2021.
'What do you give somebody that you have taken everything away from?" Walker told the Buffalo News in 2021. "What can they do to make the remainder of my life right? That's the step I am walking toward right now."
U.S. District Judge Meredith Vacca, who was appointed to the federal bench last year, presided over the trial and is also scheduled to preside over Boyd's posthumous civil trial.
— Gary Craig is a veteran courts and criminal justice reporter with the Democrat and Chronicle.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: John Walker Jr. awarded $28M after wrongful conviction in NY
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