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Mobster's Manuscript Could Free Ex-FBI Agent
19 Mar
Summary
- Bulger's manuscript claims Connolly was framed by another agent.
- FBI documents and unfinished manuscript are new evidence.
- Prosecutors allegedly withheld Bulger's statements for years.
Newly discovered evidence, including a handwritten manuscript by the late mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, is being used by attorneys to seek the overturn of former FBI agent John Connolly's murder conviction. Connolly's legal team filed a motion on Monday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, asserting that Bulger's own words exonerate Connolly.
Connolly, now 85, was convicted in Florida of second-degree murder and racketeering in connection with the 1982 killing of businessman John Callahan. The prosecution's case alleged that Connolly leaked information to Bulger about an FBI investigation into Callahan's ties to organized crime.
However, Bulger's manuscript and FBI statements, seized after his 2011 arrest, reportedly identify FBI agent John Morris as the mole and describe Connolly as a "sacrificial lamb." Connolly's lawyers claim these documents prove he was framed and that prosecutors deliberately withheld this exculpatory evidence.
The material came to light recently, following reports of misconduct by a prosecutor in the Miami-Dade state attorney's office. Connolly's attorneys argue that this pattern of prosecutorial misconduct and the withheld evidence create reasonable doubt about his guilt. Connolly, who was serving a 40-year sentence, was granted compassionate release in 2021 due to a terminal illness.
