Wednesday is Wrongful Conviction Day
Advocates will gather at the State House to raise awareness of wrongful convictions
On Wednesday, advocates will gather at the Massachusetts State House for a Wrongful Conviction Day event organized by the New England Innocence Project.
Advocates are meeting at the State House at noon. Inside the Great Hall from 12:30 to 1, there will be speakers including Sean Ellis and James Lucien, both of whom were convicted of murder but exonerated after spending decades in prison.
State Senator Patricia Jehlen, the author of a bill that would make it easier for exonerees to get financial compensation from the state and increase the amount of money they can receive, will also speak.
At 2 PM, advocates will march from the State House to Boston City Hall.
I attended NEIP’s last two Wrongful Conviction Day events, and this is well worth your time if you’re interested in learning about how wrongful convictions happen and how they can be prevented.
If you attend, I’ll see you there. If not, I’ll have a report for you next week.
This year, I’ve been been writing about the case of James Carver, who was convicted of arson and 15 counts of murder after he was accused of setting a deadly 1984 fire in Beverly. Carver has maintained his innocence for more than three decades and is fighting for a new trial based on newly developed scientific evidence that his lawyers say shows the prosecutor'’s theory of how the fire started is impossible.
You can read my in-depth story about the Carver case here:
You can watch me talk about the Carver case here:
The fate of James Carver is currently in a judge’s hands, and it’s unclear when he will make his ruling, but I’ll have an update when that happens. Additionally, I’m working on another detailed story about a decades-old murder case that is currently taking up the majority of my time.
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Here’s a story from last week that you might have missed, particularly if you don’t live in Western Massachusetts: Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi admitted to drunk driving after he was arrested by State Police outside the MGM casino in Springfield on September 21.
According to New England Public Media:
The sheriff appeared at Springfield District Court on Monday morning for a brief arraignment. His attorney entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf. Only hours later, his office released a statement saying Cocchi later changed his plea, admitting there were enough facts to convict him.
Cocchi was granted a continuance without a finding, in which the charge will be dismissed if he does not get in trouble with the law for the next year. In addition, his spokesperson said, Cocchi's driver's license will be temporarily suspended, and he must also take an OUI (operating under the influence) education class.
Cocchi is one of the state’s biggest advocates for providing involuntary treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in jail. Cocchi runs a program for men who have been civilly-committed for addiction treatment in his jail. Even though state law prohibits civilly committing women to jail for treatment, there’s no law preventing men from being jailed.
Cocchi has claimed that his program is the most effective in the state, so it’s interesting that he didn’t ask the judge who sentenced him to incercerate him there.
After leaving the courthouse, Cocchi told NEPM that he was taking “full responsibility for what happened.” But it sounds like that might not have been his first thought when he was stopped by police.
According to NEPM:
According to the criminal complaint provided to NEPM on Monday afternoon, Cocchi left a sheriff's department vehicle running in the valet parking area at the MGM Springfield casino early Saturday evening. The state-owned SUV was missing a tire and had damage to another tire, the complaint said.
A short time after police discovered the vehicle, Cocchi returned from the casino to the parking area.
"His speech was slurred, and I could smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath and person," State Police Lt. Corey Mackey wrote in the complaint's statement of facts. "I also noted his eyes to be bloodshot and glassy."
Mackey wrote that the sheriff claimed he popped a tire coming around a corner near the casino. Surveillance video indicated this was not the case, the complaint said.
Mackey also wrote that Cocchi initially said a friend of his had been driving the car, but then "admitted that he was driving." Cocchi told Mackey he drove to the casino after playing golf at the Springfield Country Club, in West Springfield, and "consumed a couple beers," the officer wrote.
After declining a field sobriety test several times, Cocchi was arrested and brought to the State Police barracks, where he declined a breathalyzer test.
In another story, NEPM notes that Cocchi could be removed from office if the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission takes away his law-enforcement certification, but it’s unclear whether the agency has any plans to do so.
Speaking of cops, drinking, and driving: Last week, NBC10 Boston’s Ryan Kath reported the conclusion to a story he’s been following for nearly a year:
The Brockton police chief suspended a sergeant without pay for three days because of his role in a late-night crash after leaving a nearby bar at closing time.
That’s according to an internal affairs investigation, which revealed Sgt. Stanley David was drinking on the night in May 2023 when he collided with a family’s vehicle as they sat at a red light.
As Kath reports, the officers who responded to the crash didn’t perform a field-sobriety test, but the department’s investigation still turned up evidence that David had been drinking — including video from inside the bar.
And yet:
Even though the department’s internal investigation determined there was not enough evidence to prove David was intoxicated behind the wheel, Chief Brenda Perez concluded the findings warranted a three-day unpaid suspension for conduct unbecoming of an officer.
“This decision is based on substantial evidence that underscores both poor judgment on your part and the subsequent damage to the reputation of the Brockton Police Department,” Perez wrote in a letter to David.
…
“The narrative that a cover-up may have occurred has fostered a climate of suspicion and damaged public trust—an essential component of effective policing,” Perez wrote to David in the report. “Your actions have not only reflected poorly on you as an individual but also cast a shadow over the integrity of the entire department.”
The quotes from the police chief make it sound as though her primary concern was that the crash made the department look bad — and it certainly has, but is a three-day suspension going to fix that?
That’s all for now.