Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Robert Mulligan recently overturned Laurence Adams’ conviction for a 1972 murder of a transit worker because police had withheld critical evidence. Adams had been convicted and sentenced to death in 1974 based on the testimony of two witnesses who had unrelated charges dropped following the trial.

The government’s key witness testified that Adams had admitted to the offense in a discussion in a private home, but subsequently discovered records indicated that the witness was actually incarcerated at the time that he alleged the conversation took place. Adams’ court-appointed attorney was also representing another suspect in the case, a clear conflict of interest. Adams’ death sentence was reduced to life without parole when the death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 1974. Charges against Adams were formally dropped on June 7, 2004. (Boston Globe, May 20 & 21, 2004; New York Times, June 8, 2004.)

There have now been 118 former death row inmates freed following their exonerations. Adams’ is the most recent case to come to DPIC’s attention but is number 115 in chronological order.

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