Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Darryl Burton didn’t hate God. He just didn’t know Him.
But he did hate everyone in the criminal justice system responsible for sending him to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. The judge. The attorneys. The cops. The false witnesses. He was filled with rage and anger.
He forgave them all, though. If Jesus could find forgiveness for those who crucified him, so could Burton.
“Jesus said one verse that began to change my life: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” Burton said. “They’re killing him and he’s innocent. He’s not only speaking and preaching about love and forgiveness but he’s doing it at the point of death. How can he do that? It’s much too hard for me.”
So Burton prayed through clenched teeth with a rage that belied those words of forgiveness until, eventually, he meant them. That’s when he found freedom, spiritually at least, about 10 years before Centurion Ministries helped exonerate him and he was released from prison in 2008.
Burton shared his experience Monday in front of a full house at Ward Chapel AME Church in Iola as part of a Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration. The event was rescheduled after a snow storm in January.
Burton was arrested in St. Louis in 1984 for a fatal shooting at a gas station. He was just 22, with an infant daughter. He knew police had the wrong man and expected to be freed.
A witness claimed the gunman was light-skinned, while Burton is very dark. Two men claimed they saw Burton shoot the man, but one witness later said he gave the false statement as part of a deal to avoid a longer sentence in another case. The judge, Burton’s attorney and the prosecutor agreed to withhold information that might have convinced a jury to acquit him, Burton said.
Burton was convicted in less than an hour after a three-day jury trial and sentenced to 50 years without parole. He traveled on “The Grey Goose,” a school bus painted gray with wire mesh and bars on the windows, until he reached the Missouri State Penitentiary. A welcome banner greeted him: “Leave all your hopes, family and dreams behind.”
In prison, Burton heard the horrific screams of men violated in the worst ways. His first day, he saw men stabbed. His last day, someone was nearly decapitated.
He spent his time researching the law, filing court motions and writing more than 600 letters. To presidents. To governors. Senators and representatives. Even Oprah Winfrey.
In 1990, he wrote to Centurion Ministries, an organization that helps people who were wrongfully convicted. Because of limited funds and high demand, they told him it would be 10 years before they could take his case.
“I got time,” Burton said of his thoughts at the time. “I got 75 years. I can do 10.”
After Centurion began work on his case, it was another eight years before his release. He spent 24 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
A gas station attendant who attended Burton’s trial said she told law enforcement in 1985 they had the wrong man, Burton said. He was shorter and his skin was much darker than the gunman, she said.
That evidence, and more, didn’t come out until 2007.
Burton credits his grandmother, a fierce woman who presided over a large family, for leading him to the words of Jesus. Her words rang in his ears long after she died: “Boy, can’t nobody help you but Jesus.”
He read the Bible, paying particular attention to words in red. Those, he knew, were the words spoken by Jesus.
Love your enemy.
Pray for your enemy.
(ital) Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
“Jesus understands our suffering because he suffers with us,” Burton said. “I got to follow this guy. He understands my pain.”
Burton wrote one more letter, a letter he couldn’t keep in case the prison guards found it and determined he was “cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.”
“Dear Jesus,” he wrote. “If you’re real, you and I know I’m innocent. If you help me get out of this place, not only will I serve you but I will tell the world about you.”
Burton kept that promise. He traveled the world to speak about his experience yet it wasn’t enough. He earned degrees in divinity from the St. Paul School of Theology and is an associate minister at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist Church in the U.S. He serves as pastor, a youth mentor and volunteer and leads a weekly leadership group and healing classes.
“Today I am standing here, being used as a vessel and a vehicle for God’s message of hope and forgiveness,” Burton said.
“We can’t forgive but God can forgive through us if we let Him. That’s how it has to happen.”
PHOTO: Darryl Burton speaks at Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. ceremony in Iola. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS