COURT DENIES NEW TRIAL FOR EX-GANGSTER
BOSTON: Former mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, convicted of participating in 11 murders during the 1970s and ‘80s, will not get a new trial, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.
A three-judge panel of the 1st US Circuit of Appeals found that Bulger had not shown his right to a fair trial was violated when a judge barred him from testifying about his claim that he received immunity for his crimes.
“For the reasons spelled out above, Bulger got a fair trial and none of the complained-of conduct on the court or government’s part warrant reversal of his conviction,” the appellate judges concluded.
The ruling likely isn’t the end of the line for Bulger, who was once one of the nation’s most wanted fugitives: he has the right to appeal the panel’s ruling by asking for a hearing before the full court of six judges. His lawyer Hank Brennan didn’t immediately comment on Friday.
Mr Brennan argued before the court in July that Bulger’s defence was eviscerated when he wasn’t allowed to tell the jury that a now-deceased federal prosecutor granted him immunity to commit crimes. The trial judge said Bulger had not offered any hard evidence of such an agreement.
Prosecutors argued that Bulger was not barred from taking the witness stand in his own defence, only from testifying about his immunity claim.
Bulger fled Boston in 1994 following a tip from an FBI agent he was about to be indicted and was finally captured in 2011.