Boston Pays $12M To Settle Case Of Man Freed After Misconduct Boston agreed to pay $12 million to Shaun Jenkins, a Dorchester man who spent nearly 19 years behind bars for a 2001 killing he has always maintained he did not commit. The settlement, finalized in October 2024, was revealed through public records and recent media coverage, marking a significant resolution to a case that exposed systemic issues in the city’s law enforcement and prosecutorial practices. Jenkins was released from prison in 2021 after a judge overturned his 2005 murder conviction, citing widespread police and prosecutorial misconduct. The settlement, which was initially kept confidential, underscores the financial and reputational risks faced by Boston authorities when dealing with wrongful convictions. Jenkins’s attorneys, Nick Brustin and Katie McCarthy, emphasized that the city’s decision to settle rather than proceed to trial reflected its awareness of the potential for greater liability if the case had gone to court. “The City’s settlement demonstrates it knew it faced much greater liability if the case went to trial,” they stated, as reported by The Boston Globe. Despite the settlement, spokespeople for Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Police Department declined to comment on the matter. Jenkins’s conviction unraveled after newly surfaced evidence cast doubt on the prosecution’s case. In 2023, he filed a federal civil rights complaint naming several Boston detectives and alleging that they engaged in misconduct, including paying witnesses and concealing critical evidence. Court filings and investigative reports by WBUR detailed how the prosecution’s original theory linking Jenkins to the crime was undermined by undisclosed information.#boston_police_department #michelle_wu #shaun_jenkins #nick_brustin #katie_mccarthy
Boston Paid $12 Million to Settle Shaun Jenkins’ Lawsuit The city of Boston agreed to a $12 million settlement with Shaun Jenkins, a man who spent nearly 19 years in prison for a murder he claimed he did not commit. The agreement, reached in October 2024, was quietly finalized after a judge overturned Jenkins’ 2005 conviction due to systemic police and prosecutorial misconduct. The settlement, obtained by the Boston Globe through a public records request, was not publicly announced at the time and marks one of the largest payouts the city has made in recent years. Jenkins, who was released in 2021, filed a federal lawsuit against the city and several Boston police detectives in 2023. The case revealed that detectives had paid a key witness at least $100 per day before the witness was scheduled to testify in a grand jury proceeding. Prosecutors also buried evidence that could have implicated another suspect, including cellphone records showing the victim had frequent contact with a drug supplier on the day of the killing. The victim, Stephen Jenkins, had owed his supplier $3,000 and had lost a stash of crack cocaine, yet investigators never pursued the supplier, who later died of an overdose. The settlement came after years of legal battles. Jenkins’ conviction was initially upheld through multiple appeals, but his attorneys eventually submitted the case to the Suffolk District Attorney’s Integrity Review Bureau. There, they discovered previously withheld documents that exposed the misconduct. The revelations led to the case’s dismissal, and prosecutors later dropped the murder charge against Jenkins. This settlement is part of a broader pattern of police misconduct cases in Boston.#boston #shaun_jenkins #boston_globe #suffolk_district_attorney #massachusetts_bar_board
