BACKGROUND: "Ellis was found guilty in the 1993 killing of Boston Police Det. John Mulligan, but a judge in 2015 ordered a new trial on the murder and armed robbery charges after finding authorities failed to disclose evidence of corruption among investigating officers. Prosecutors announced in 2018 that they would not retry Ellis, but the 1995 firearm convictions remained on his record. Ellis said Wednesday that he “finally feels free.” The New England Innocence Project and Ellis attorney, Rosemary Scapicchio, applauded Rollins’ move. “Sean has been waiting 27 years to clear his name and this is a giant step forward in that process,” Scapicchio said. 10 Boston;
------------------------------------------------------------
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Check out the link below for 'Trial 4' - an eight-part Netflix original documentary-series, and a related live panel discussion. More to follow when the smoke clears. HL);
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
--------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Suffolk D.A. Rachael Rollins On Moving To Drop Sean Ellis’ Final Gun Charge: "[The Boston Police Department] are firmly entrenched in the belief that, with all of this taint and corruption and lies and misconduct that they can still whittle that away and try to believe that there is enough for a conviction and, you know, I believe there will be push back and there will be fallout." GBH "Greater Boston": DA Rollins Reacts
----------------------------------------------------------------
PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Suffolk DA Rollins files motion to end the long-running prosecution of Sean Ellis: "Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins filed a motion Wednesday that could bring to a close the three-decade-long case of Sean K. Ellis, whose conviction for the murder of Boston police Detective John J. Mulligan became a cause celebre that raised major questions about police corruption and prosecutorial misconduct." The Boston Globe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
RELEASE: "After 28 years, another step towards justice," published by The New England Innocence Project on March 18, 2021.
SUB-HEADING: "D.A. Rollins endorsees new trial for Sean Ellis."
GIST: "District Attorney Rachael Rollins filed her assent in Court yesterday to the motion for new trial filed by exoneree and NEIP Trustee, Sean Ellis, a long-awaited step toward justice in a fight that has spanned nearly three decades.
Sean Ellis and his attorneys, Rosemary Scapicchio and Jillise McDonough, filed a motion for new trial in December of last year to overturn Sean's remaining gun convictions, wrongful convictions that stemmed from the systemic corruption that led to Sean spending more than 21 years in prison.
In her filing, DA Rollins wrote: “The aforementioned corruption of [Boston Police Department], coupled with the unconstitutional withholding of evidence by this Office and our overall failure of inquiry, are disgraceful chapters in our history. This level of misconduct and indifference by the prosecution team (both BPD and the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office) cannot be condoned, ignored, or tolerated. We must learn from our mistakes.”
Sean Ellis, The Law Offices of Rosemary Scapicchio, the New England Innocence Project, and the CPCS Innocence Program hosted a virtual press conference yesterday afternoon to share reactions to the filing.
Every wrongful conviction exposes the failures of the criminal legal system and Sean's story is no different. We must remember that there are so many more people who have been wrongfully convicted through corruption, misconduct, and systemic racism, and we intend to keep fighting to expose and correct those injustices.
The entire release can be read at:
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwLswMrVHbSgqGTMJQJMzCZcBrL
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
-----------------------------------------------------------------
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————
FINAL, FINAL WORD (FOR NOW!): "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
