BUFFALO, N.Y. — John Walker, Jr. and Darryl Boyd are two of the Buffalo 5 who appeared in court hoping to be completely exonerated.
In the 1970's, Walker, Boyd and Floyd Martin were indicted for the robbery and beating death of William Crawford on Fillmore Avenue. The victim was a White senior citizen, the defendants are Black.
Four of the defendants always maintained their innocence. Tyrone Woodruff was a witness and testified against his friends. He was never charged. He has now reversed his story.
Monday afternoon, Boyd and Walker finally got their day in State Supreme Court before Hon. Christopher Burns. It was a pending post-conviction 440 motion. Judge Burns denied the attorneys representing Boyd and Walker summary motion for dismissal, but he did grant a hearing on the 440 motion. No date has been set, but it could be in April or May.
Walker, Boyd, and Woodruff are the last three surviving members of the "Buffalo 5." Martin and Gibson are now dead.
Boyd remains on parole and has to be indoors by 9 p.m.
They're represented by defense attorney Paul Cambria who says their conviction should be overturned because of a critical error.
"They did not get a fair trial as a result of that," Cambria said. "We have a sworn statement from former Judge McLeod who says that there was the existence of a photograph, which completely refuted the prosecution's case. We haven't been able to find that photograph, but we do have a sworn statement about it and there's nothing that has disputed any of that."
The photo apparently shows one assailant and one victim. During the original trial, the prosecution presented to jurors information that there were several assailants and one victim.
Cambria said this is a strong case "photographs don't lie."
"The lawyers never asked for photographs, that's where the fault lies," Cambria said.
Boyd said "we just want justice, justice for everybody involved including the victim."