Jim Walker

1940 - 2023

Jim Walker
September 11, 1940 - January 24, 2023
Boise, Idaho - James Dean Walker, Boise native and master bootblack, died peacefully of natural causes on his terms January 24, 2023, after a brief illness. Jim was born on September 11, 1940, and spent the first and last days of his life in St. Alphonsus Hospital. Jim and his sister, Ila Louise, were abandoned as young children and subsequently bounced back and forth between foster homes and family. He grew up and attended schools in Boise and all over the Northwest while his father worked various construction projects as a heavy equipment operator. He once attended 13 different schools in the course of a year. Jim joined the Army on his 19th birthday, and after stints at Fort Ord and Fort Dix, was stationed at a munition's depo near Bar-le-Duc, France, a small Renaissance town about 140 miles northeast of Paris. The company commander picked Jim to serve as his driver, which freed him up to spend several weekends a month in Paris. After his discharge, Jim returned to Boise in early 1961, working construction and living in the Oxford Hotel. He returned to France that winter, sailing on the luxury liner RMS Mauretania (2), to visit the girl he had left behind in Bar-le-Duc. After four months, Jim decided he was too young to marry and returned home to Idaho. Jim relocated to Lake Tahoe and, with help from a friend, learned the trade that would sustain him for the rest of his life, first working in a shoe repair shop and then as a bootblack from his stand in Harrah's. Jim had a life-long affinity for Armagnac from his time in France.
Jim's life was forever changed on April 16, 1963. While traveling through Little Rock, Arkansas, Jim wound up in a bar fight and fled the scene with his companions. Jim was a passenger in the car thereafter being pursued and stopped by the police. A gunfight ensued and an officer died from a single and fatal shot to the heart. Jim had been shot 5 times by that officer and was found with a fully loaded pistol in his hand that had not been fired. Jim was convicted of murder after two trials presided over by a judge who was prejudiced against him. The first conviction was reversed, just days before Jim was scheduled for execution, by the Arkansas Supreme Court based on errors in the judge's conduct of the trial. The second trial was before the same judge, who said to an officer before the trial, that if Jim attempted to escape "shoot him down" because the judge "intended to burn the S.O.B anyway." Jim was subject to life imprisonment thereafter and, again, incarcerated in the infamous Cummins Arkansas State Prison (see Brubaker starring Robert Redford). Jim steadfastly maintained his innocence because he did not fire the fatal shot. Jim became a model inmate, attaining the status of a trustee and allowed to leave the prison on weekends to speak to regional civic groups, churches, and school assemblies. By 1975, however, Jim "saw no daylight" from his wrongful conviction and feared for his life from a warden who vowed "to bury him in the prison yard." He escaped while on furlough, flew from Memphis to California and back to Lake Tahoe, again plying his trade as a bootblack. Four years later, in 1979, he was found and returned to jail. A cadre of lawyers successfully fought his extradition to Arkansas for almost two years, but ultimately he was returned to Cummins.
The dedicated and painstaking pro bono work by lawyers and others committed to Jim and his innocence continued into the 1980s. And in May 1985, their efforts were vindicated when the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered the State of Arkansas to give Jim a new trial or release him. The court decided that the judge who presided over the trials was so biased that Jim did not receive a fair trial, that evidence had been suppressed over the years by the State, including newly discovered evidence, from recorded statements and contemporaneous diary entries, that his companion driver fired the fatal shot. The Opinion was authored by Circuit Judge Myron H. Bright of North Dakota.
Judge Bright served on the Eighth Circuit for over 48 years. In his memoir, published in 2015, and other speeches and presentations over the years, Judge Bright pointed to the James Dean Walker case as one of the most significant of his long and distinguished career, rectifying a miscarriage of justice and ultimately freeing an innocent man. Judge Bright and Jim exchanged correspondence and spoke many times over the 30 years following the Court's decision. One of the highlights of Jim's life was being invited by the Judge's staff and family to attend Judge Bright's retirement celebration as a surprise for the Judge.
Jim returned home to Boise in 1993, after some time once again plying his trade in Lake Tahoe following his release. Jim wanted to be with his sister Ila Louise Walker Mitchell and his aunt Helen Whalen, who both loved him dearly and spent many happy times together with Jim until their deaths a few years back. With some help from fellow bootblack Hank Webb, Jim set up his two-chair stand in Roper's Clothing Store, the Mode Department Store, the lobby of the US Bank, and finally the lobby of the Grove Hotel. For the next 23 years, Jim provided satisfaction for his many customers reflected by the smiles in the shine of their shoes and boots - he truly was a craftsman. Businessmen, lawyers, politicians when the legislature was in town, including those in leadership positions, elected officials, and countless others from all walks of life found solace and respite from the rigors of work in one of Jim's chairs.
Jim retired in 2017 and lived for the last six years of his life in the Idanha Hotel. Jim did not share his story widely until several of his friends, dubbed "the 3 Amigos," highlighted it to rally community support to help find housing and supplement Jim's social security income. Jim was humbled beyond words at the outpouring of support received in response to this effort from Idaho and beyond.
Jim had a keen memory, worked the crossword puzzles daily, and loved to walk down to visit his friends at JD's Bodega to play Powerball, always in hopes of winning so that he could use the proceeds to fulfill a dream of building tiny homes for the homeless.
Over his lifetime, Jim learned how to transcend circumstances and injustice and evolved to become a contributing member of society. Jim was grateful for his life and to be able to live in freedom, knowing that in the end justice had been served. Jim had not a vindictive or bitter bone in his body and provided a simple example of how to live happily ever after: don't look back, don't hold a grudge, be content with a few friends and family, and live free every day. Jim received the most kind and considerate care from St. Al's physicians and staff in the ER Department and 9th Floor. In honor of Jim, donations to a favorite charity or the Idaho Innocence Project would be appropriate.