http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/nyregion/dewey-bozella-52-cleared-of-77-murder-wins-pro-boxing-debut.htmlAt 52, Wrongly Convicted Man Is Victorious in the RingFour rounds in a boxing ring could not undo 26 years in prison, but Dewey Bozella made the most of them, winning a unanimous decision Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in what he says will be his only professional fight.
Mr. Bozella, making his professional debut at the age of 52, two years after being exonerated of the 1977 murder of a 92-year-old woman in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., started slow but then outpunched and outworked his opponent, Larry Hopkins, 30, of Houston, in a cruiserweight bout.
“Dreams do happen if you never give up hope and always believe in yourself,” Mr. Bozella said in a televised interview after the fight. “Don’t let anyone tell you what you can’t do.”
Mr. Bozella has gained an unlikely degree of celebrity since he walked out of a Poughkeepsie courthouse into a cold rain, a free man at last, on Oct. 28, 2009. He was convicted in 1983 of killing Emma Crapser and then convicted a second time in 1990 after turning down a deal that would have let him leave prison if he only confessed to the crime.
The discovery in 2008 of the file of the Poughkeepsie police lieutenant who had investigated the case revealed substantial exculpatory evidence that was never turned over to Mr. Bozella’s lawyers, finally leading to his exoneration.
In prison, Mr. Bozella earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and became the light-heavyweight champion of Sing Sing. He credited boxing with giving him the discipline and strength to make it through prison, and he jumped at the chance for one professional fight after his release.
Among those wishing him well in his bout with Mr. Hopkins, now winless in four fights, was President Obama, who telephoned him Thursday to offer encouragement.
Mr. Bozella repeated remarks made before the fight that he did not plan to box professionally again.
“This is my first and my last fight, so I thank you all very much,” he said after the bout. “This is a young man’s sport; this isn’t for an old-timer like me unless I was 20 or 30 years younger.”
He said he planned to open a boxing ring of his own in upstate New York as a way to mentor youths.
“My next fight is to work with kids, the Dewey Bozella Foundation, that’s what I’m trying to get started to work with kids to keep them off the streets, to let them know through boxing they can turn their life around,” he said.
