Crime & Safety
Murder Conviction Overturned for John Connolly—Ex-FBI Agent, Whitey Bugler Associate
Connolly, an associate of Whitey Bulger, had been sentenced to 40 years in prison. He could soon be a free man.
John Connolly, a former FBI agent and Whitey Bulger associate who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a gangland murder, could soon become a free man after a court overturned his murder conviction.
The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Florida made the decision Wednesday. The ruling can be found here.
Connolly was implicated in the 1982 murder of World Jai-Alai President John Callahan. Witnesses said Connolly tipped off Bulger that Callahan was about to testify against him for another murder.
Connolly has denied the charges. His team of attorneys have argued that prosecutors improperly used a gun charge to leverage their case, the Associated Press reported.
"The trial court impermissibly relied on an uncharged firearm to enhance the only crime for which he was convicted," Wednesday's court ruling read. "Without the fundamentally erroneous reclassification, Connolly’s conviction for second-degree murder as a lesser included offense of first-degree murder was barred by the applicable statute of limitation."
Connolly has been serving his sentence in a Florida prison. The court ordered him to be released, though prosecutors will have a chance to appeal, according to the Boston Herald.
Bulger last year was sentenced to two life terms for his role in 11 murders.
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