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Massachusetts
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Aug 01, 2022
Massachusetts Formally Exonerates Last ‘Witch’ Wrongfully Condemned During Salem Hysteria. Will Connecticut Follow Suit?

As Massachusetts formally exonerated the last person condemned for witchcraft in the colony, efforts are under way to clear the names of the 46 people wrongfully charged with witchcraft in neighboring Connecticut during the 17th century Puritan witch hunts.
Read MoreOct 14, 2021
Supreme Court Hears Argument on Department of Justice Efforts to Reinstate Death Penalty in Boston Marathon Bombing Case
A United States Supreme Court sharply divided along ideological lines heard oral argument October 13, 2021 on the Department of Justice’s appeal of a federal circuit court’s ruling overturning the death sentences imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his convictions in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Veteran court watchers reported that the six conservative justices seemed poised to overturn the federal appeal court’s grant of a new penalty phase hearing to Tsarnaev and to return the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to resolve the remaining challenges…
Read MoreSep 01, 2021
Massachusetts 8th Graders Push to Exonerate Woman Sentenced to Death in 1693 in Salem Witchcraft Hysteria
A group of 8th graders from North Andover Middle School in North Andover, Massachusetts are championing efforts to posthumously pardon a young woman who was sentenced to death for witchcraft in 1693 during the height of the Salem witchcraft hysteria.
Read MoreAug 03, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of July 27, 2020
NEWS (7/31/20) — Boston, MA: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has overturned the death sentence imposed on Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. In a 2 – 1 decision, a panel of the court ruled that Tsarnaev’s death sentence violated the “core promise of our criminal-justice system … that even the very worst among us deserves to be fairly tried and lawfully punished.” The panel found that the trial judge’s failure to question 9 of the 12 seated jurors about what they had read and heard about the bombing…
Read MoreMay 13, 2015
EDITORIALS: USA Today Urges Life Without Parole for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
On May 12, the editorial board of USA Today affirmed its opposition to the death penalty in an editorial urging that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev be sentenced to life without parole, rather than the death penalty, for his role in the Boston marathon bombing. “Laws aren’t written for a single individual, and the death penalty applies to many people,” the editorial said. “Tsarnaev and other infamous defendants … demonstrate the penalty’s arbitrary nature. While Tsarnaev has a superb legal team, most defendants get by with lawyers who are inexperienced, low-paid…
Read MoreApr 15, 2015
VICTIMS’ FAMILIES PERSPECTIVES: Families of Massachusetts Murder Victims Speak Out on Penalty for Tsarnaev
UPDATE: “Family members of two Massachusetts murder victims, including the police officer who was killed by the Tsarnaevs, have spoken out concerning their views on the sentence they believe should be imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing. Now Bill and Denise Richards, parents of 8‑year-old Martin Richards, the youngest victim killed in the Boston Marathon bombing, have added their voices and called on federal prosecutors to drop the death penalty in exchange for termination of all appeals in the case. In a statement in the Boston Globe,…
Read MoreJan 23, 2015
The Difficulties in Selecting Impartial Jury for Boston Bombing Trial
According to a recent article in the New Yorker, it has been diffcult selecting a jury for the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is accused of the Boston Marathon bombing. Many of the 1,350 people who filled out a juror questionnaire have been eliminated from service based on their written answers. But even of those who remain, only a few have been found sufficiently impartial regarding Tsarnaev’s guilt or innocence and on potential sentences, putting the selection process behind schedule. Eventually, 18 people — 12 jurors and 6 alternates -…
Read MoreJan 13, 2015
Neuroscience Research Indicates Susceptibility to Influence in Younger Defendants
A growing body of research into adolescent brain development indicates that the brains of even those over the age of 18 continue to physically change in ways related to culpability for criminal offenses. The Supreme Court referred to such scientific evidence regarding those under the age of 18 when it struck down the death penalty for juveniles in 2005 (Roper v. Simmons) and when it recently limited life without parole sentences for juveniles. According to Laurence Steinberg (pictured), a professor of psychology at Temple University, the brain continues a process…
Read MoreDec 11, 2014
Legal Experts Urge Plea Deal in Boston Bombing Case
In an op-ed for the Boston Globe, three legal experts, including retired federal judge and Harvard Law School professor Nancy Gertner (pictured), wrote about the benefits of allowing accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. If Tsarnaev is convicted, they write, the penalty phase of his capital trial will put all attention on Tsarnaev’s life and background, rather than on the victims of the bombing. “Tsarnaev’s lawyers are duty-bound to bring every kind of mitigation before the jury; the…
Read MoreDec 02, 2014
VICTIMS: Boston Bombing Trial Could Cause More Trauma
In an op-ed in the Boston Herald, Michael Avery, professor emeritus at Suffolk University Law School, whose sister and niece were murdered 30 years ago, suggested that a plea bargain might be a better ourcome for all concerned in the case of Dzokhar Tsarnaev, the defendant in the Boston Marathon bombing. A trial, he said, would be painful for victims and survivors: “Boston will relive every tortu[r]ous moment of the bombing, over and over, probably for weeks…if Tsarnaev is convicted, we’ll have a second trial on the penalty. The defense…
Read MoreNov 13, 2014
NEW VOICES: Federal Judge Underscores the “Heavy Price” of the Death Penalty
In a recent interview, Judge Michael A. Ponsor, who presided over the first federal death penalty trial in Massachusetts in over 50 years, warned that the death penalty comes with a “heavy price” — the risk of executing innocent people: “A legal regime permitting capital punishment comes with a fairly heavy price.…where there’s a death penalty innocent people will die. Sooner or later — we hope not too often — someone who didn’t commit the crime will be executed.” In 2001, Judge Ponsor oversaw the capital trial of Kristen Gilbert, a nurse who was…
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History of the Death Penalty
Massachusetts was one of the first states to carry out the death penalty in colonial times but has since changed its approach. In early times, hanging was the primary method of execution. Some defendants in the 1600’s were executed for religious affiliations. Mary Dyer was just one of the people executed for affiliating with the Quaker religion and there were dozens of individuals, both male and female, executed for witchcraft. In 1900, Massachusetts installed an electric chair to be used in death penalty cases. Electrocution was the most common form of execution in the Commonwealth until capital punishment was abolished in 1984. After the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in the state, governors, including Mitt Romney, have tried to reinstate the death penalty. Attempts thus far have been unsuccessful.
Famous Cases
John Billington, a colonist who arrived on the Mayflower, was the first person executed in Massachusetts, in 1630. He was hung for killing John Newcomen.
On April 15, 1920, two men, Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli, were robbed and murdered in Braintree, Massachusetts. The two men charged with the murder, Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were Italian immigrants and followers of Luigi Galleani, an Italian anarchist. Before Sacco and Vanzetti were tried for the murders, Vanzetti was tried and convicted of a separate robbery, despite the testimony of 16 witnesses who provided an alibi for him. Heavy security was put in place for the murder trial, due to fears that other anarchists might try to bomb the courthouse. The prosecution presented evidence that one of the four bullets retrieved from Berardelli’s body matched a gun owned by Sacco, though witnesses testified that they saw one man shoot Berardelli four times, suggesting that all four bullets should have come from the same gun. Defense witnesses testified that they were having lunch with Sacco at the time of the robbery and murder, and others said that Vanzetti had been selling fish at that time. When Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of first-degree murder, a capital crime, demonstrations were held in cities throughout Italy and Latin America. Supporters believed that the men had been convicted because of their anarchist beliefs.
In 1925, Celestino Madeiros, an ex-convict awaiting trial for a different murder, confessed to committing the Braintree murders. Lawyers for Sacco and Vanzetti presented an appeal to Massachusetts’ highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, but it was denied. In denying the appeal, the court said, “It is not imperative that a new trial be granted even though the evidence is newly discovered and, if presented to a jury, would justify a different verdict.” In 1927, after the appeal had been denied, Judge Webster Thayer sentenced the two men to death. The governor denied clemency after a commission he had formed declared that the trial had been fair. Madeiros (who had been convicted of a separate murder), Sacco, and Vanzetti were all executed on August 23, 1927. The following day, protesters demonstrated around the world. Over 10,000 people in Boston viewed Sacco and Vanzetti in open caskets over two days. Fifty years later, then-Governor Michael Dukakis declared August 23, 1977 Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Memorial Day.
The last executions to take place in Massachusetts were Phillip Bellino and Edward Gertson on May 9, 1947 for the murder of Robert William. Both defendants were electrocuted at Charlestown State Prison. Their executions inspired a commission to evaluate the death penalty in Massachusetts to determine the effectiveness.
Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
After Furman v. Georgia, voters in the Commonwealth passed an amendment that allowed the death penalty in 1982. Under this new amendment, the state could not “be construed as prohibiting the imposition of the punishment of death”. Later that same year, the legislature passed a bill reinstating the death penalty for first-degree murder.
In Commonwealth v. Colon-Cruz (1984), the Massachusetts law that enabled capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional on the grounds that it was not applied fairly, since only defendants who went to trial were eligible; this excluded defendants who plead guilty.
Other Interesting Facts
Until 1951, any first degree murder conviction required the death penalty. This changed to provide jury discretion on most murder cases. However, the death penalty was still mandated in murders involving rape or attempted rape.
In total, there have been 345 executions in Massachusetts, including 26 for witchcraft. Nineteen of those executed for witchcraft were hanged in Salem in 1692 as a result of the infamous Salem Witch Trials.
