Boston Bar Convenes Task Force to Prevent Wrongful Convictions

BOSTON – Saying that “reducing the risk of convicting innocent people while the guilty go free will build public confidence in the entire system of criminal justice,” Boston Bar Association President Kathy B. Weinman today announced that she has formed a Task Force To Prevent Wrongful Convictions.  The BBA Task Force To Prevent Wrongful Convictions will be co-chaired by Martin F. Murphy, a criminal defense attorney and partner at Foley Hoag LLP, and former First Assistant D.A. for Middlesex County and Assistant U.S. Attorney, and David E. Meier, now pursuing both a civil and criminal trial practice at Todd & Weld, and former chief of homicide prosecutions at the Suffolk County D.A.’s Office.

Weinman has given the task force a two-part charge: 

• To identify the systemic reforms needed to reduce the risk of convicting innocent people     
• To recommend how those reforms should be implemented fully in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In addition to the two co-chairs, those serving on the task force are: (retired) Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court Christopher Armstrong; Allison Burroughs, partner, Nutter, McClennen & Fish; Denise Casper, Deputy District Attorney for Middlesex County; Jennifer Chunias, partner, Goodwin Procter; Major James Connolly, Massachusetts State Police; Commissioner Ed Davis, Boston Police Department; Shannon Frison, Frison Law Firm; Randy Gioia, Law Office of Randy Gioia; William Kettlewell, partner, Dwyer & Collora; William Leahy, Chief Counsel, Committee for Public Counsel Services; Elizabeth Lunt, partner, Zalkind, Rodriguez, Lunt & Duncan; Gregory Massing, General Counsel, Executive Office of Public Safety and Security; Mary Kate McGilvray, Massachusetts State Police; Sejal Patel, Law Office of Sejal H. Patel; Joseph Savage, Jr., partner, Goodwin Procter; David Siegel, Professor, New England School of Law; and Joshua Wall, First Assistant District Attorney, Suffolk County D.A.’s Office.