The Suffolk district attorney is abandoning efforts to reopen a nearly 30-year-old murder case

The Suffolk district attorney has dropped an attempt to get a new trial against a black Boston man who spent decades in prison for a murder he claimed he did not commit.

In a Massachusetts Superior Court filing, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said it would not seek a second trial against Joseph Bennett, who was convicted of second-degree murder, in light of a “key witness’s” decision to change his testimony shooting in 1997 and was awaiting a new trial.

“After reviewing the current state of the evidence … and after nearly twenty-seven years, the Commonwealth has concluded that it cannot once again prove the murder charge beyond a reasonable doubt,” the filing states.

A spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden declined further comment.

Bennett, 50, had maintained his innocence and requested a new trial in the shooting death of Jasper Gillard at the Rolls Club in Mattapan. He served 22 years for the second-degree murder conviction before being granted a retrial and released in 2019.

A Facebook post by Stephen Pina Sr. WHO
he himself was wrong convicted and released, Bennett congratulated the prosecutor’s decision.

Bennett founded
YardTimean organization that supports returning citizens and works to break the cycle of incarceration of black and brown men.

In early January, Bennett spoke about his own family trauma and his work supporting those coming out of prison.

“When we come home we want to do good, but we don’t have the tools to do it right. We find it difficult to adapt again. “If you let someone come out after 22 years, what do you expect them to have in terms of motivation, aspirations and goals if they don’t have a proper support system?” he said in one
Conversation on “Java with Jimmy Live at GBH” with James “Jimmy” Hills.

Bennett’s uncle is Willie Bennett, the man who was falsely accused as a suspect in the 1989 murder of Carol Stuart, a white woman.

Stuart’s husband, a white man, had fatally shot his pregnant wife and blamed the murder on a black man. The false story sparked a police siege of black neighborhoods in search of a suspect and tore the city apart along racial lines.

Officially Mayor Michelle Wu at the end of last year
apologized to Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson, another man falsely linked to the murder.

“In accepting this apology, I want to emphasize the importance of strength, resilience, empathy and growth,” said Joseph Bennett at this public event. “Through these principles, we are changing the narrative so that the world can be informed about what happened 34 years ago.” Begin the process of healing from our trauma again.”