Federal prosecutors won’t pursue the demise penalty towards two males charged with the jail killing of infamous Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, in line with court docket papers filed Wednesday.
Prosecutors mentioned in a court docket submitting that within the occasion Fotios “Freddy” Geas, a former Mafia hitman, and Paul J. DeCologero, a Massachusetts gangster, are convicted of homicide in Bulger’s killing, they won’t search a demise sentence.
Geas additionally confronted a attainable demise sentence if discovered responsible of an extra cost of homicide by a federal prisoner serving a life sentence. But prosecutors mentioned they might not search it within the occasion he’s convicted of that cost both.
Geas and DeCologero had been charged final August within the 2018 slaying of Bulger, who who ran the largely Irish mob in Boston within the Nineteen Seventies and ’80s and served as an FBI informant who ratted on his gang’s essential rival. Bulger was killed simply hours after he was transferred to a jail in West Virginia from one other lockup in Florida and positioned within the normal inhabitants.
Geas and DeCologero are accused of hanging Bulger within the head a number of instances whereas a 3rd man, Sean McKinnon, acted as a lookout. An inmate witness advised authorities that DeCologero mentioned he and Geas used a belt with a lock hooked up to it to beat Bulger to demise.
Geas, DeCologero and McKinnon are all charged with conspiracy to commit homicide, which carries as much as life in jail. McKinnon, who’s charged individually with making false statements to a federal agent, didn’t face a attainable demise sentence. The males are scheduled to go on trial in December 2024 in federal court docket in West Virginia.
Patrick Nash, an legal professional for DeCologero, known as it the “correct decision by the Department of Justice.”
“We are looking forward to our day in court. We trust the system and trust the fairness of the system and will put the facts in front of the jury,” Nash mentioned.
Attorneys for Geas didn’t instantly reply to emails in search of touch upon Wednesday. An legal professional who has represented Bulger’s household additionally didn’t reply to an e-mail.
Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 positioned a moratorium on federal executions. But the Justice Department has continued to press for the demise penalty in sure circumstances.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”