Willie Bennett’s household sat collectively on stage at Roxbury Community College wearing Adidas tracksuits a day after it acquired an apology 34 years within the making.
An outline of a 5-foot-10 Black man sporting a black tracksuit with white or pink stripes who spoke with a gravelly voice in the end led to their brother, father and uncle’s wrongful arrest within the Oct. 23, 1989 capturing homicide of a pregnant Carol Stuart.
The description supplied to authorities that October night time got here from Stuart’s husband, Charles “Chuck” Stuart, who, in truth, orchestrated the homicide however blamed it on a random Black man, an accusation inflaming town’s racial tensions.
Mayor Michelle Wu final week formally apologized on behalf of town to Bennett and Alan Swanson, the 2 Black males wrongfully arrested and accused within the case.
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox, who stated that he “was born and raised here so I certainly understand the history involved,” additionally apologized on behalf of the Police Department for the “hurt and pain and suffering” attributable to the division’s dealing with of this case.
Willie Bennett didn’t attend the occasion his household hosted Thursday in Roxbury as a result of “he don’t want to be here. He don’t want to talk to anybody because all he is going to get is an apology,” stated his niece Star Bennett.
After years of affected by the wrongful arrest and accusation, family members say they want to get the reality on the market in regards to the case and the affect it has had on their household. It’s their manner of “changing the narrative,” stated Willie’s nephew, Joey Bennett.
“We’ve never had this conversation as a family,” he stated. “This is the first time we have talked about it as a family. This is not something that we prepared for or anything.”
“Thirty-four years of pain, like put that into numbers, you can’t put that into numbers,” Joey added.
During her apology Wednesday, Wu stated “a false, racist claim accusing a Black man” for Carol Stuart’s dying “unleashed” terror on the Mission Hill group.
Mission Hill, one in all Boston’s historically majority-Black neighborhoods, was swarmed with Boston Police following the killing. A participant within the HBO documentary on the case, “Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning,” described it as “open season” on town’s Black inhabitants.
The first wrongfully arrested member of the group was Alan Swanson, who had a black tracksuit soaking within the sink, which the police took as proof. While he was truly solely accused of an unrelated unarmed theft, police leaked to the media that they thought of him their man within the Stuart homicide.
A bunch of youngsters later established the rumor that Willie Bennett, one other member of the Mission Hill group, had carried out the capturing.
Star Bennett stated she remembers the night time her uncle was arrested, when she was simply 6 years outdated on the time, “like it was yesterday.” She had been house together with her sister and mom when police raided their house. At the identical time, police additionally raided the three different houses that members of the family had been residing in, Joey Bennett stated.
“Even people in Boston who had the last name Bennett Nelson, they went into their homes, as well,” Star Bennett recounted. “To say we are angry, we are bitter, we are upset, an apology 34 years later, we will accept it … but it doesn’t fix anything.”
Chris Nelson was 15 when his father Willie was arrested. He stated his father raised him one of the best he may however that his father missed out on “many, many things.”
“There’s no amount of money y’all can pay or anyone can give us to give back the lessons and the time that we didn’t get whether it be fishing, walks in the park or him teaching my little sisters how to ride a bike,” Nelson stated.
“But I am glad that he finally got some kind of recognition,” he added of his father.
It has been reported in numerous shops, together with by the Herald, that the mayor on the time of the incident, Ray Flynn, had supplied a personal apology to the Bennett household.
But that is the primary such public apology supplied by town.
Joey Bennett stated it could solely be a matter of time till he and his household obtain one other apology.
He was charged, convicted and incarcerated for 22 years after being accused of a second-degree homicide at a metropolis nightclub in 1997. He bought out in 2019 on bail and is preventing the case with the hopes of being exonerated.
Joey Bennett stated, “They’re going to have to apologize again when they say ‘We’re dismissing this case against you right now’ that I’m walking around on bail for. I’m going to get another apology, y’all, and then cut the check.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”