AM INNOCENT
He didn’t do it – now Queens DA is reviewing his case
last week.
Boyd, a New Jersey native, was arrested a month after the shooting.
He claims he was not in Queens when Yurkiw was shot, but neither he nor Lampert provided The News an alibi or evidence proving his innocence, citing the ongoing review by the Queens DA’s office.
Lampert did say that one of the main witnesses in Boyd’s trial has since recanted his trial testimony, which was central to his conviction.
“Shawn has maintained his innocence from day one and that speaks volumes,” Lampert said.
“I’ve always empathized about what happened to him,” Boyd said about Yurkiw. “But I was not the one who committed the crime. Unfortunately the real shooter was never apprehended.”
A spokeswoman for the Queens DA’s office could not comment Friday on the new look into Boyd’s case.
“It is the policy of our office not to comment on investigations before the conviction integrity unit,” the spokeswoman said.
Members of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, the union that represents NYPD detectives, blasted Boyd’s claims.
“Thanks to his lifesaving bullet-resistant vest, Paul fortunately went on to have a storied career in the NYPD bomb squad and was promoted to detective,” Paul DiGiacomo, the president of the association, said.
“Boyd was convicted by a jury of his peers and sent to prison. Boyd’s new claims of innocence are as difficult to believe as the Parole Board’s decision to release him.”
In 2016, Yurkiw’s son, NYPD Detective Andrew Yurkiw, was shot and wounded during a gunfight in Brooklyn. In that case, the same miracle that saved his father saved him: His bullet-resistant vest stopped the bullet, officials said.
While incarcerated, Boyd mentored young men coming into prison through anti-violence and addiction programs. Now free, he hopes to continue bringing the same positive change to the city’s youth.
“We’re into justice reform and looking into wrongful convictions, but we also want to get to the youth and show them another path than crime and violence,” Boyd said. “So many of them come from homes filled with addiction and domestic violence. That’s how they get into the juvenile centers and end up in jail.”
“We want to show them another way,” he added.
After his conviction, Boyd said he was repeatedly urged to confess to the shooting. But he refused to cop to a crime he insists he didn’t commit even though he might have gotten parole years earlier.
“Those who did not confess or show remorse do not make [parole],” Boyd said.
“I love my mother more than anything and wanted to be back home with her, but you have to be willing to die for something and I was willing to die for this and my mom understood that.”
“I am never ever going to admit to something I didn’t do,” he added.
ALBANY — Advocates and lawmakers are again looking to give New Yorkers who have paid their debt to society a stigma-free fresh start.
A new “Clean Slate” bill being proposed would create a two-step process to automatically seal and eventually expunge past convictions and make it easier for those who served time to find work and housing opportunities.
“A criminal conviction shouldn’t be a life sentence to second-class status, but for many of our friends, neighbors, family members and fellow New Yorkers, that’s exactly what it is,” said sponsor state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn). “Our Clean Slate legislation aims to change that.”
Under the measure, first proposed two years ago, a conviction would be automatically sealed one year after sentencing on the individual’s last misdemeanor conviction and three years after sentencing for felonies, as long as someone is off probation and parole, is not facing any pending criminal charges and is not on the sex offender registry.
Civilly sealed convictions would then not show up in most background checks for employment and housing and would be inaccessible to police departments.
They would still be accessible for courts and prosecution purposes as well as agencies statutorily mandated to fingerprint people for government-regulated jobs, licensing and clearances.
Criminal records don’t just act as barriers for the predominantly Black and Latino communities that see the highest rates of incarceration, advocates argue. The ACLU estimates that excluding individuals with conviction histories from the workforce costs the U.S. economy between $78 billion and $87 billion annually in lost Gross Domestic Product.
Those who have dealt with the weight of a past conviction say the move would be a game changer for people trying to rebuild their lives postprison.
“As a person with a record, I know the struggle of formerly incarcerated people seeking jobs in New York State,” said Warren Ovalle, a community leader with the Brooklyn-based Center for Community Alternatives. “The discrimination in employment and housing impacts not just the individual, but their children and families.
“Clean Slate legislation would allow hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers with old convictions, who have satisfied all of the state’s requirements, to stop an endless cycle of punishment,” he added.
Under current law, criminal records can be permanently sealed after a 10-year wait, only under certain conditions and involving a process that is not automatic, aiding only a tiny fraction of those eligible.
An estimated 600,000 New
Yorkers are eligible to apply for records sealing under the measure enacted in 2017, but fewer than 2,500, or less than 1%, have completed the process.
The new Clean Slate bill would automatically expunge convictions if someone stays out of trouble.
A conviction would be automatically and fully expunged five years after sentencing of a misdemeanor conviction and seven years after felony conviction, as long as a person is no longer on probation or parole, has no pending criminal charges in the state and is not a sex offender.
The measure has the backing of the Legal Action Center and the Community Service Society of New York, as well as the Legal Aid Society, the Bronx Defenders and more.
Last year, the legislation, which had a companion bill in the Assembly, never made it out of committee. Backers are hopeful that this year will be different as Dems eye other criminal justice reforms.
Several lawmakers made surprise visits to a number of upstate prison facilities this month and called on officials to speed up COVID vaccinations for inmates and raise awareness of a separate legislative package dubbed the “Justice Roadmap.”
The “roadmap” includes a host of measures such as the longstalled Human Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement, or HALT, Act, which could dramatically curtail the use of solitary confinement in the state.
It also covers the state’s renewed efforts to legalize adult-use marijuana and a pair of bills that would grant parole to eligible people in prison unless they pose a clear risk of violating the law, and allow inmates older than 55 who have served 15 years or more of their sentences to apply for parole. Other bills deal with raising the age at which suspects can be treated as adults and ending “predatory” court fees.
Sen. Gustavo Rivera (D-Bronx), the sponsor of the Fair and Timely Parole Act, said a surprise visit to the Otisville Correctional Facility in Orange County gave him the chance to speak with several people who have been incarcerated for more than 20 years.
“[After the visit] I am even more convinced that our parole system needs to be redesigned in its entirety,” he said. “By passing my Fair and Timely Parole Act, and the rest of the Justice Roadmap platform, we will ensure that our prison and parole systems focus not just on punishment, but on redemption.”