One word changed Darryl Burton’s life. “Guilty.”

 

Before the word fully registered, Burton was being escorted to the Jefferson City Correctional Center where he spent 24 years studying the law and trying to prove his innocence. “I was one step from death row, I like to say,” said Burton.

 

In 1984 he was arrested on the charge of capital murder using the testimony of two paid informants who made deals on their own criminal charges. Though there was no physical evidence or motive connecting him to the St. Louis shooting, Burton was convicted and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for 50 years.

 

His release took years of letter-writing, trying to find anyone who would listen to his story and help. He finally stumbled across Centurion Ministries, a small not-for-profit organization located in Princeton, N.J.

 

The organization receives thousands of requests each year, Burton said. “And they only accept three cases a year.” Even if he was selected, it would take 10 years to get to his case, Burton said.

 

He wrote them every year. “I figured I don’t have much to lose,” he said. He was selected in 2000.

 

Burton wrote what he considers an even more important letter in 1998. “I wrote a letter to God,” he said.