‘Now I can get on with my life’
DA wants to toss final charges vs. man jailed in tainted cop-slay case
Sean Ellis, who spent 22 years behind bars before his murder conviction was overturned, says “now I can get on with my life” after Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins on Wednesday supported a new trial to throw out his gun convictions.
But the Boston Police Department still maintains there was “sufficient credible evidence” for a gun conviction that has been tied to the murder of Boston Police Detective John Mulligan.
Rollins’ court filing for a new trial to throw out the gun convictions comes after Ellis’ murder conviction was overturned in 2015 amid revelations of police misconduct and corruption. He was released from jail in 2018 after 22 years behind bars.
“To have my name cleared, it’s truly emotional and now I can get on with my life,” Ellis said during a virtual press conference.
“It feels great today to finally be free, and not have to worry about any convictions on my record,” he later added.
Ellis’ murder and armed robbery convictions were previously overturned, but the convictions for possession of two firearms remain in place.
“It is the opinion of the Commonwealth that each of the Defendant’s convictions has been irreversibly compromised,” Rollins wrote to Massachusetts Superior Court in response to Ellis’ motion for a new trial. “Accordingly, the Commonwealth asks this Court to grant a new trial so that it may file a nolle prosequi for the Defendant’s remaining convictions. It is what justice requires.”
“Corruption at the root tainted every branch of the investigation into Detective Mulligan’s murder, including the gun possession charges,” the DA wrote.
In December, Ellis and his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial to overturn the gun convictions remaining.
Rollins noted that Ellis’ murder and armed robbery convictions were overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court after he had already served 22 years for those crimes — significantly longer than he would have ever served on a firsttime conviction for two counts of possession of a firearm.
Boston Police Superintendent in Chief Gregory Long on Wednesday said BPD’s “belief remains the same, that there was sufficient credible evidence to support a conviction for illegal firearm possession.”
“As Judge Ball stated in her 2015 decision, ‘(the motion for new trial is) denied as to the firearm convictions as no real doubt as to the justice of those convictions has been established,’ ” Long said in a statement.
“The reprehensible and corrupt behavior of three former members of the Boston Police Department has caused the conviction in the 1993 murder of Detective John Mulligan to be overturned,” he said. “Those three detectives not only disgraced themselves, but unfortunately their conduct was used to tarnish the reputation of the entire Boston Police Department.”