The federal jurors never met the Buffalo man whom they awarded a record $80 million for spending more than 20 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
The man, Darryl Boyd, died in February from pancreatic cancer as he waited for the civil trial that capped a nearly 50-year fight to clear his name and hold Erie County responsible for imprisoning him. So instead of hearing Mr. Boyd tell his story in person, the jurors saw him on a screen as he gave a recorded deposition.
He spoke about his murder trial in 1977, where the Erie County district attorney’s office withheld evidence and used false testimony against him.
Mr. Boyd told of how he returned to his cell in shock after he was convicted of murder at age 17. He cried as he talked to his mother, he said on the recording. Decades of dehumanizing violence followed. He was slashed by someone who wanted his commissary purchases, saw a friend fatally stabbed over a piece of chicken, heard and smelled someone get burned alive in a cell.
When he was exonerated, it was like “fresh air,” Mr. Boyd said. “Then, emotions came later.”
On Wednesday, after a two-and-a-half-week trial, the jurors took less than an hour to posthumously grant Mr. Boyd’s estate an amount that outstripped the $60 million award that two Chicago men each received in March. Mr. Boyd’s estate includes his mother, son and granddaughter.
Jeffrey S. Gutman, a professor at George Washington University Law School, said the sum was “by far, the largest jury award in a wrongful conviction compensation case.”
The City of Buffalo previously settled with Mr. Boyd for slightly over $4 million.
Mr. Gutman, who tracks such payouts for the National Registry of Exonerations, said that such verdicts were rare and that many similar cases settled outside of court or were dismissed.
Awards can be reduced on appeal, and on Thursday, the Erie County attorney, Jeremy Toth, said in a statement that the county would appeal to a higher court.
A spokesman for the county executive, Mark C. Poloncarz, said that Mr. Poloncarz believed the $80 million award to be “egregious.” “While we extend our sympathies to the family, that amount is insupportable.” the spokesman, Peter Anderson, said.
Mr. Boyd’s case has worked its way through New York courts for decades. He was one of five boys accused in the 1976 robbery and killing of a 62-year-old man, William Crawford, inside his home. At the time, Mr. Boyd and the other boys, all Black, became known to their supporters as the Buffalo Five.
One was coerced by investigators into testifying against the others in return for not being prosecuted. One boy was acquitted at trial, but the other three were sent to prison, including Mr. Boyd. He was tried before an all-white jury and convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery.
In 2021, Mr. Boyd’s conviction was vacated. He was about 62 — and had completed 20 years in prison and spent eight more on and off for parole violations.
A judge found that prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence to his defense, including pictures from the crime scene that directly contradicted the prosecution’s theory of the case and witness testimony that pointed toward another perpetrator. Investigators also “coerced vulnerable witnesses to provide false statements,” according to the lawsuit.
The year after his exoneration, Mr. Boyd filed a federal lawsuit against Buffalo, Erie County and several detectives. If not for their misdeeds, Mr. Boyd “would not have been prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned,” said his lawyers, Joel Rudin and Ross E. Firsenbaum, who were part of a team of about a dozen.
One of his co-defendants, John Walker Jr., was awarded $28 million in April. Mr. Walker testified at Mr. Boyd’s civil trial this month.
In 1976, the Buffalo Police Department’s homicide squad questioned several people, eventually coercing a 17-year-old boy to turn in his friends to save himself.
The prosecutor with the Erie County district attorney’s office who handled the case testified in this month’s trial, denying that he had hidden evidence.
“You think just to get these convictions, I was going to hide proof?” the former prosecutor, Timothy Drury, said. “No, I’m not going to do that.”
But when Mr. Rudin went through the items of evidence, Mr. Drury could not actually recall whether he had turned them over.
In prison, Mr. Boyd and Mr. Walker began requesting documents from their cases. And as Mr. Boyd was transferred from one prison to another, he completed an associate degree and a paralegal certification, according to his deposition.
After they left prison, the two men spent years trying to draw attention to their wrongful convictions, Mr. Boyd said in his deposition. The pair picketed court buildings, held rallies and sought out reporters.
“We were just diligently trying to get our story there and seeking anyone to get our story told truthfully,” Mr. Boyd said.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state courts.
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