Howard was one of three panelists speaking on the state erroneous conviction statute at the Boston Bar Association on November 19. The other panelists were a current and former lawyer from the Attorney General’s office, which defends these cases. Howard presented the perspective of a lawyer representing innocent people who were convicted of crimes.
The erroneous conviction statute, Mass. General Law Chapter 258D, is a state law which provides money damages up to $500,000 for innocent people who were convicted of felonies but later had the convictions reversed. Unlike civil rights claims, the wrongfully convicted person does not have to show that a police officer or some other official violated the law to recover damages, but they must prove that they were innocent. Our firm brought one of the first cases under that statute on behalf of Lawyer Johnson.