New Trial Ordered for Man Accused of Killing Boston Police Detective: Updated

BOSTON, MA — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that a man convicted in the 1993 killing of a Boston Police Detective was unfairly tried.

The Boston Globe reports that Dorchester man Sean K. Ellis is now entitled to a new trial in connection with the 1993 murder of Detective John J. Mulligan.

Mulligan, who the Globe casts as "a controversial detective," was shot in the face five times outside a Roslindale Walgreens. At the time, he was asleep in his SUV, out on private detail.

A lower court judge ruled last year that Ellis, who was convicted in 1995, did not get a fair trial. Ellis, who maintains he was innocent in the crime, has been free since then, WBZ reports.

The Suffolk County District Attorney's office, which originally pursued the trial, on Friday promised to take Ellis back to court.

In a statement, the DA's office said:

Never once in more than 20 years has a single piece of reliable evidence undercut the compelling case against Mr. Ellis, and we intend to present that case to a jury once again.

As the SJC noted, not one shred of information developed since Detective Mulligan’s murder has contradicted the strong evidence on which Ellis was convicted. The court found that certain documents may have provided his first attorney with an alternative trial strategy, but none of them suggested actual innocence and many are inadmissible as evidence.

The critical facts remain as true today as they were in 1993. Only two individuals were seen creeping toward Detective Mulligan’s vehicle before the murder and fleeing from it afterward. Only two individuals matched the physical descriptions of the murderers. Only two individuals were, by their own admissions, at the scene of the murder at the time it occurred, and only two sped away in a distinctive vehicle that was stripped of its identifying features after a description was made public.

One of these men was Sean Ellis, who in the days following the murder had the murder weapon and the victim’s service weapon, complete with his girlfriend’s fingerprint on it. Mr. Ellis’ convictions for possessing these firearms were upheld by the SJC and were never even challenged by defense counsel. The other was Terry Patterson, who admitted his guilt and unequivocally identified Sean Ellis, and no one else, as his confederate in Detective Mulligan’s murder.

>>> Read the full story from The Boston Globe here. <<<

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