Jury Returns Record $80 Million Verdict for Wrongful Conviction Based on DA Misconduct
by Jo Ellen Nott
A federal jury in New York awarded the estate of Darryl Boyd a record-breaking $80 million on November 19, 2025, for the more than 27 years he spent incarcerated following his wrongful 1977 murder conviction. Boyd, who died of pancreatic cancer in February 2025 while awaiting the civil trial, was one of the “Buffalo Five” wrongly imprisoned due to egregious misconduct by the Erie County District Attorney’s office.
The jury’s swift decision, reached in under an hour, affirms that prosecutors not only failed to turn over exculpatory evidence (Brady violations) but also used false testimony and engaged in summation misconduct to secure a conviction against the then-17-year-old Black defendant. Critical evidence, including crime scene photos that contradicted the prosecution’s case and witness testimony pointing to another perpetrator, was unlawfully withheld.
Prosecutor Timothy Drury became a county judge not long after leading the prosecution, then went on to serve as a state supreme court judge for 30 years. Now 85, Drury was discredited at each civil trial when he denied any wrongdoing. Attorneys for Boyd’s estate challenged his testimony when he claimed he could not recall turning over key items despite denying that he hid evidence.
A pro bono legal team led by WilmerHale Partner Ross Firsenbaum, alongside co-counsel The Law Offices of Joel B. Rudin P.C. and Spencer Durland of Hoover & Durland, won the largest individual wrongful conviction jury verdict in U.S. history. The firms dedicated nearly 16,000 pro bono hours to clear the names of men framed in the 1976 case.
The attorneys argued successfully that the constitutional violations were not isolated errors but the product of a policy, custom, or practice within the DA’s office at the time. Boyd’s civil suit alleged that, absent the prosecutorial misdeeds, he would never have been prosecuted or convicted.
Boyd was exonerated in 2021 after spending more than 27 years in prison and 18 years on parole. In early 2025, lawyers from the same three firms won a $28 million jury verdict for Boyd’s 1977 co-defendant, John Walker. Walker, though ill and wheelchair-bound, testified on Boyd’s behalf after winning his own battle for vindication on April 8, 2025.
The extraordinary jury verdict serves as a damning condemnation of the decades-old injustice, which subjected Boyd to dehumanizing prison violence, including hearing and smelling a fellow prisoner being burned alive in another cell.
Erie County has already announced it will appeal the $80 million award, which County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz deemed “egregious” and “insupportable,” despite the jury’s finding of substantial misconduct that cost an innocent man his entire adult life.
Sources: WGRZ Buffalo, The New York Times, WilmerHale
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