| BMG denizen Speaking Out has periodically posted updates (including one yesterday) on the long-running saga of Ben LaGuer, who was convicted of rape in 1983 and is serving his sentence in MCI-Shirley, but who has consistently maintained his innocence. The case remains an active one. The Supreme Judicial Court has agreed to hear LaGuer's latest round of appeals. Briefing is scheduled to be completed by late October, and argument is tentatively scheduled for December. LaGuer is represented (pro bono, I assume) by James Rehnquist, son of the late Chief Justice and a partner at the white-shoe Boston firm of Goodwin Procter.
LaGuer's bid to clear his name has enlisted an unusual cadre of supporters, including John Silber, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - and, most relevantly, Deval Patrick, who reportedly said “I therefore have serious misgivings about the integrity of the criminal justice system in this case, as I believe any citizen would.” Patrick's "misgivings" led to today's Herald article, which is subtly entitled "Deval backs rapist's parole try." Additional unbiased reporting comes in the last line, which notes that "LaGuer is not the first convicted violent felon Patrick has backed. When he was an attorney for the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund in the 1980s, Patrick fought to save two cop killers from death row, winning one of the appeals." Good job, reporter. No context, no further information, nothing. Just inflammatory lines about backing violent felons and saving cop killers. *sigh* The article does manage to note that Patrick hasn't followed the case in recent years.
Luckily for Patrick, this story ran on the same day that the DA in Colorado dropped murder charges against the guy who may or may not have killed Jon Benet Ramsey. So rather than the front page of the Herald trumpeting the LaGuer case, we got this:
Small favors, I guess.
UPDATE: Speaking Out notes some interesting circumstantial evidence that Tom Reilly's campaign may have encouraged the Herald to write the LaGuer story. |
