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| Man Freed After 33 Years In Prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/21/2001 |
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A man who spent 33 years in prison for his role in a Mob murder was freed Wednesday after prosecutors acknowledged the FBI's withholding of information cost him a fair trial. Wilfred R. French, a former Revere, Mass. bouncer, was one of six men accused in the shooting of Edward 'Teddy' Deegan on March 12, 1965. He acknowledged playing a role in the killings but has filed numerous motions for a new trial. French's release came a year to the day after Suffolk County prosecutors received FBI documents as part of a Justice Department corruption probe. Those documents showed the FBI knew a key witness in the cases, Joseph Barboza, lied during defendants' trial. In January, prosecutors withdrew charges against two other defendants, freeing Joseph Salvati and Peter Limone. Prosecutors insisted French's case was different. While the FBI documents contradicted Barboza's testimony about Limone and Salvati, they reinforced Barboza's testimony about French's guilt. But they acknowledged French should have been given access to that information at his trial, and that he could have used it to cast doubt on Barboza's testimony. Assistant District Attorney Mark Lee said the commonwealth would not retry French because he has already served a long sentence and because Barboza, the principal witness, has been dead since 1976. 'It's not a perfect system, people are not perfect. To the extent an apology is owed, perhaps the system owes him one,' Lee said. French, 72, white-haired and appearing frail as he sat in handcuffs in the courtroom, nodded his head and quietly repeated 'thank you' to Judge Margaret Hinkel as the hearing ended. 'It's a perversion of the judicial system that I've never seen in the 26 years I've been involved in the system as a prosecutor and defense lawyer,' said Philip Tracy, French's lawyer. 'But we had people with courage...We went to (prosecutors) and said look this is wrong, this thing was wrong from the start.' |
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