John “Zip” Connolly, the ex-FBI agent convicted over his ties to slain Southie mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, has misplaced his bid to clear his identify.
The third District Court of Appeals in Florida denied Connolly’s bid for “postconviction relief” from his second-degree homicide conviction. But, because the Herald first reported, he stays free from jail whereas on a medical launch.
Still, his Boston lawyer Peter Mullane stated Thursday, the getting old former G-man needs to resurrect his repute.
“The decision is moot in a street sense, but not moot for John who wants to clear his name,” Mullane instructed the Herald. “He’s totally and completely innocent.”
Connolly argued in a movement that “Florida, violated his due process rights by failing to disclose” witness testimony that he says would have cleared him.
He added he was employed by the FBI in 1968 “tasked with cultivating certain government informants, including James J. “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “the Rifleman” Flemmi, two infamous members of a rival prison group, the Winter Hill Gang.”
Connolly’s goal, he provides, was “to infiltrate the La Cosa Nostra, an organized crime syndicate responsible for a myriad of murders in the Boston area.”
The solely drawback was Bulger and Flemmi had been equal-opportunity killers within the metropolis.
Yet Mullane writes in his movement — and once more in an interview with the Herald — that Connolly’s case didn’t embody key testimony from former assistant agent-in-charge of the Boston FBI workplace, Robert Fitzpatrick.
The movement states: “Fitzpatrick attested he informed (a colleague) that Connolly was sequestered from the (incriminating) investigation because, during that time, he was pursuing a graduate degree at Harvard University.” Fitzpatrick additionally supplied up one other potential suspect.
The Florida appeals court docket didn’t chunk. His conviction was “affirmed.”
Mullane stated the judges in Florida had been swayed by public opinion and the media protection didn’t assist. The films and books on Bulger’s brutal historical past and life on the lam didn’t assist both.
As for Connolly, who’s in his 80s, he’s convalescing at house in Massachusetts “dealing with medical issues and trying to stay alive,” Mullane added.
Connolly was convicted in 2008 for carrying his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with Bulger in Boston to warn him of what businessman John Callahan knew. Bulger was murdered in a West Virginia jail in 2018.
Callahan, the previous president of World Jai Alai, was shot lifeless by John Martorano, one in all Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was additionally a pal of his. Bulger wished Callahan lifeless as a result of the Boston businessman may implicate them in a 1981 slaying of one other World Jai Alai govt.
The Florida Commission on Offender Review voted 2-1 in February of 2021 to spring Connolly on a medical launch as a result of he had a few 12 months to reside after being known as “terminally ill.”
The Herald has filed a public information request with the Florida fee in search of the minutes and audio of Connolly’s listening to that befell final week.
Another Florida decide, the movement provides, has acknowledged the proof on this stunning case was “overwhelming.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”