can we get more than press releases these days? this story has no details... lazy journalism...
yes, Herald just had this AP story. Boston crime reporter Michele McPhee’s tweet, also pretty generic: “A Florida murder conviction for John Connolly - Whitey Bulger’s FBI handler - is overturned. Connolly was serving 40 years.” More details to follow I hope. Really breaking news
>>In the court’s new ruling, a panel of judges determined that Connolly’s second-degree murder conviction was barred by the statute of limitations applicable at the time. His attorneys argued that prosecutors improperly used a firearms allegation to enhance the charge to one potentially punishable by life in prison — for which the statute of limitations would not apply.
‘‘Connolly’s conviction for second-degree murder with a firearm should not have been reclassified to a life felony in order to circumvent the statute of limitation,’’ wrote Chief Judge Frank A. Shepherd and Judge Richard J. Suarez in the majority opinion. ‘‘Without the fundamentally erroneous reclassification, the first-degree felony of second-degree murder was time-barred.’’
Judge Leslie B. Rothenberg dissented.
Connolly has long denied a role in Callahan’s slaying. Trial testimony showed he was 1,500 miles away in Massachusetts when Callahan was killed by Bulger’s hit man John Martorano, who made a deal with prosecutors in return for his testimony in Connolly’s case and others. The only evidence that Connolly might have had a firearm when Callahan was killed is the standard FBI practice that agents are armed while on duty.
The court said Connolly should be freed from prison based on the erroneous conviction, but it issued a stay so prosecutors could appeal further. A spokesman for Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.