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
