inside this week
Mattapan residents mapping history, future pg 9
INSIDE ARTS
editorial
PEM EXHIBIT EXPLORES GAINS MADE BY WOMEN IN FASHION pg 16
Black patriotism is not blind loyalty pg 4
plus Akiba Abaka Arts presents weekly talks with Jamaican theater artists pg 16 Screen art series plumbs race, isolation pg 17 Vol. 56 No. 17 • Thursday, November 19, 2020 • FREE • GREATER BOSTON’S URBAN NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1965
www.baystatebanner.com
‘Trial 4’ challenges police dept. integrity Documentary details police and DA’s rush to convict in 1993 cop killing By YAWU MILLER Last week, two black men won victories in their fights against wrongful convictions. Frederick Clay won a $3.1 million settlement with the city of Boston after spending 38 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit, and James Watson was freed after serving 41 years on a murder conviction that was vacated due to prosecutorial and police misconduct and “incentivized and coerced witnesses,” among other factors. The pair were the latest in a steady trickle of exonerations, vacated cases and dropped prosecutions in Boston over the last several years as attorneys and advocates sort through flawed police and prosecutorial work from decades past to free the wrongly convicted. In many cases, the exonerations call into question the veracity and reliability of police officers and prosecutors who have stuck life sentences on scores of Bostonians throughout their careers. It’s a scenario that was highlighted by the Netflix documentary “Trial 4,” which chronicles Sean K. Ellis’ 22-year battle to be freed after he was convicted of killing Boston Police Detective John Mulligan in a trial marred by witnesses who were coerced, witnesses who were paid for their testimony, exculpatory evidence police hid from defense attorneys, and police investigators who appeared more motivated
by a desire to cover for their own crimes than to solve the murder of a colleague. In one of the more telling moments of the Ellis documentary, filmed just weeks before reform-oriented Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins took office in January 2019, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross contends that Ellis was guilty of Mulligan’s murder during December press conference to announce the district attorney’s decision not to re-try Ellis, who had been freed in 2017. “As you heard the district attorney state, Sean Ellis is culpable,” Gross tells reporters. “What does the evidence look like after 25 years? The witnesses and their strength, and the decision was based upon that, not innocence at all.” Despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary, including three accounts of witnesses who informed police that another officer had threatened to kill Mulligan before he was shot dead in 1993, police and prosecutors in 2018 seemed unwilling to entertain the possibility that their colleagues convicted the wrong man. Two of the officers who produced physical evidence and found witnesses linking Ellis to the crime, Walter Robinson and Kenneth Acerra, were convicted in 1998 of robbing drug dealers. On more than one occasion, Mulligan was alleged to
See “TRIAL 4,” page 14
BANNER PHOTO
Real estate investors DSF Group has rebranded the Fairlawn Estates complex ‘SoMa Apartments at the T.’
Renters struggle with out-of-state investors Tenant unions help with battles over rent increases By MORGAN C. MULLINGS When the Morton Village tenants in Mattapan found out their building was sold to a California investor, fears of displacement rose and they demanded immediate negotiations. After months of protests and a $4 million investment from the city, the Morton Village Tenant Association secured fiveyear leases and a plan for reasonable rent increases. These tenants
had unmatched success compared to two other developments recently under new management. All three faced the challenge of out-of-state investors who were hard to reach and refused to negotiate as people were forced to leave their homes. City Life/Vida Urbana is at the forefront of most of these tenant unions, who often organize in short order when they find out their building has been sold. Steve Meacham, organizing coordinator
at the eviction-fighting organization, has led years of negotiations between tenants and investors. “We’re certainly seeing a general trend of investors who don’t want to talk to tenants,” Meacham told the Banner. In many of those cases, investors and the property managers they hire who are located in Boston have eventually given in to negotiations, and tenants, through City
See INVESTORS, page 12
Biden aide outlines public ed. goals Will increase aid, hold charters accountable By YAWU MILLER
Sean Ellis in the Netflix documentary, “Trial 4.”
IMAGE: “TRIAL 4” STILL
The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will invest billions of dollars in public education to close achievement gaps, modernize school buildings and support schools with high concentrations of low-income students, campaign policy director Stef Feldman told the Education Writers Association (EWA) in an interview last week.
Biden’s policies in many instances represent an about-face from the previous four years under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who critics say has during her time in office remained singularly focused on privatization of education, protecting for-profit colleges and expanding charter schools. Biden’s administration represents a fresh break from the anti-teachers union bent of the Trump administration, said
Beth Kontos, president of American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts. “He has been listening,” she said of Biden. “Teachers union leaders helped him create his policies.” Among the policies the Biden administration is backing are providing more funding to schools given Title I designation due to their location in low-income communities, and more funding for teacher pay and financial assistance for teachers to pay off their student loans.
See EDUCATION, page 15