Seal of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office




SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON GUN PROSECUTIONS

Oct. 11, 2007

Please note that the numbers listed below have been updated from August to reflect the most recent facts and figures

Each week, Suffolk County prosecutors meet with their federal counterparts to discuss every single gun arrest in the city of Boston and determine whether they are best prosecuted at the state or federal level. In every case, we seek the most appropriate global sanctions, and in the majority of cases that's right here in Boston.

In February of 2006, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley launched the Gun Priority Disposition Sessions, now commonly known as Gun Court. Experienced trial prosecutors work with a seasoned appellate attorney to fast-track cases of gun and ammunition possession that arise in the jurisdictions of the Dorchester, Roxbury, and Central divisions of the Boston Municipal Court department. The remaining cases are handled in the city's other five municipal courts, in Suffolk Superior Court, or in U.S. District Court.

What follows is a complete breakdown of all gun cases prosecuted in Boston in 2006, as well as a breakdown of all cases handled by the Gun Court from its inception through June 2007. Though it is dense, it ultimately proves that Suffolk prosecutors and Boston Police are doing extraordinary work and that important initiatives like the Gun Court are meeting or exceeding expectations.

Several months ago, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, in conjunction with members of the Boston Police Departments Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), which was in the process of conducting its 2006 Firearm Arrest Review Project, ran Board of Probation criminal record checks on every single defendant that police records indicated had been charged with gun possession. Boston Police provided the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office with a list of 568 defendants charged in 2006. Record checks found no gun possession entries for 51 of those defendants and no BOP at all for 15 more. After factoring out these errors, there were 502 defendants charged with firearm possession related charges in 2006.

Of those 502 defendants, 143 -- or nearly 30% -- were indicted to Superior or Federal Court where the defendants face significantly enhanced penalties. As of August 2007, 35 of the 143 indicted defendants awaiting trial have already been convicted.

Of the remaining 359 defendants charged with gun possession in 2006 whose cases remain in district court, 48 cases were dismissed for the following reasons:

*32 motions to suppress were allowed in cases where the court found the manner in which the gun was recovered violated the constitutional protections afforded the defendant pursuant to the 4th and 14th amendments;

*7 cases were dismissed by the court when police officers failed to appear;

*6 cases were dismissed by the court due to lack of probable cause; and

*3 defendants were deceased.

Prosecutors terminated another 27 cases after their own investigations found no legal sufficiency to warrant further prosecution. These were typically cases where two or more people were arrested and charged with gun possession but evidence only linked the gun to one defendant, as opposed to all of the co-defendants.

Of the remaining 284 cases in which defendants were charged with gun possession in 2006 in all Boston Municipal Court jurisdictions, including the Gun Court, 113 were resolved in 2006. Of those 113:

*91 adults were convicted;

*11 juveniles were adjudicated delinquent and committed to DYS custody;

*4 ammunition possession cases were continued without a finding;

*7 defendants were found not guilty.

As of March 2007, Suffolk County had 108 open gun cases being actively prosecuted in Superior or Federal Court and 172 cases being actively prosecuted in Gun Court or other district courts. These figures reflect not only cases that originated in 2006 but new cases that have arisen since then and, outside the Gun Court, cases that may have originated prior to 2006.

From its inception in February 2006 through September 2007, 368 cases were prosecuted and disposed in the Gun Court. Of these 368:

*21 originated in 2004 or before

*129 originated in 2005

*193 originated in 2006

*25 originated in 2007.

Of those cases, 238 were viable for prosecution. Prosecutors secured 207 convictions and just 31 acquittals, for a conviction rate of 85.1%. An additional 43 cases were indicted to Superior or Federal Court where the defendants face significantly enhanced penalties.

Of the remaining 87 cases not viable for prosecution:

*38 cases where prosecutors' own investigation indicated no legal sufficiency to warrant further prosecution. Again, these were typically cases in which two or more people were arrested and charged with gun possession but evidence only linked the gun to one defendant, as opposed to all of the co-defendants.

*33 Motions to Suppress were allowed in cases where the court found the manner in which the gun was recovered violated the constitutional protections afforded the defendant pursuant to the 4th and 14th amendment;

*16 were dismissed without prejudice. These were cases in which civilian or police witnesses failed to appear for trial and, wherever appropriate, prosecutors sought new complaints.