Benjamin LaGuer
Encyclopedia
Benjamin LaGuer is a convicted rapist serving a life sentence in Massachusetts
. He has not acknowledged the crime for which he was convicted, claiming innocence. His case achieved prominence in the late 1980s when reporting by John King
discovered a juror
who said that other members of the all-white-male jury uttered racist slurs before and during deliberations. His case became a flashpoint in the 2006 race for Massachusetts Governor
when it was revealed that Deval Patrick
, the Democratic candidate, had corresponded with and supported the inmate over a period of several years.
, New York
and grew up in New York and Puerto Rico
until age 15 when he moved to Leominster, Massachusetts
to live with a half sister who was his father's daughter from a previous marriage. He attended high school in Leominster before dropping out in late 1980 to join the Army where he served in a support capacity in Germany
. With an honorable discharge from the Army, he returned to Leominster in June 1983. On the morning of July 13, 1983 police were summoned to his neighbor's apartment where they discovered the 59-year-old woman bound and beaten. It was quickly determined to be a rape case. Two days later, on July 15, 1983, LaGuer was charged with the crime. He proclaimed his innocence but was convicted in Worcester Superior Court the following January and given a life sentence with eligibility for parole after 15 years.
which rendered a landmark ruling in LaGuer's favor. At issue was whether an affidavit given by juror
William Nowick that other members of the all-white-male panel made racist comments before and during deliberations constituted a violation of LaGuer's right to a fair trial. Even though the state's high court sided with LaGuer as a matter of law, it did not overturn the verdict, instead sending it back to the trial judge, Robert Mulkern, for a finding of fact. After a hearing in which some jurors were called to testify, Judge Mulkern ruled that the jury's deliberations were not tainted by racism. LaGuer exhausted his last appeal of that decision in 1994, more than ten years after his conviction.
The case became well known among activists, academics and journalists who came to believe strongly that LaGuer had suffered a gross miscarriage of justice. Starting in 1986, reporters who looked at the case found troubling questions about whether LaGuer in fact committed the crime. Among those who took an interest in the case and who corresponded with LaGuer were Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Elie Wiesel
, Pulitzer Prize
winning author William Styron
, Harvard University
professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard Law School
professor Charles Ogletree
, and WBUR
radio personality Jose Masso, who created the Benjamin LaGuer papers collection at Northeastern University. During that time LaGuer also earned a bachelors degree magna cum laude from Boston University
and won a first place International PEN
award for an essay on his mother. In 1998 LaGuer was for the first time eligible for parole but was denied because he refused to admit to the crime. At that point he attracted an unlikely ally in Boston University
president and 1990 Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts
, John Silber
who helped arrange for pro bono legal representation. His team, which included members of McDermott, Will & Emery, the law firm William Weld
, Silber's opponent in the governor's race, had belonged to, successfully sued the parole board and forced a second hearing at which LaGuer was again denied parole.
, a founding member of the New England Innocence Project
, then sought and found the physical evidence from the crime and in 1999 McDermott, Will & Emery managing partner Robert Cordy, now a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
, wrote to the Worcester District Attorney in an attempt to establish a protocol for DNA
testing. The district attorney, John Conte
, a former State Senator appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis
in 1976 to finish an unexpired term, rebuffed Cordy, in turn intimating that LaGuer's team may have tampered with the evidence. After more than two years of contentious and costly litigation a DNA test revealed a trace amount of LaGuer's genetic material in the evidence. Several forensic DNA experts, including Applied DNA Resources principal Theodore Kessis, John Jay College of Criminal Justice Associate Provost Lawrence Kobilinsky and Harvard University
geneticist Daniel Hartl, questioned the DNA test, and called for an investigation into its validity.
LaGuer continued to maintain his innocence and attracted the pro bono services of another high powered international law firm, Goodwin Procter
, where James C. Rehnquist, a partner at the firm and son of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist
, took over LaGuer's case. In February 2004 Rehnquist filed a motion for a new trial in Worcester, Massachusetts
Superior Court seeking a new trial on the basis of a Massachusetts State Police
report generated the day LaGuer was arrested showing that four fingerprints found on the base of the trimline telephone, the cord of which was used to bind the victim's wrists, did not match the defendant's. This revelation prompted concern from several law makers, including State Senator Jarrett Barrios
, who made a written inquiry to the State Police crime lab. Rehnquist's position that the suppression of potentially exculpatory evidence (revealed in November 2001, almost 18 years after the trial) constituted a violation of LaGuer's right to a fair trial, was rejected by Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman, who it was later revealed had once represented the victim's daughter in a probate matter related to her father's estate. Rehnquist appealed the decision where he was again denied. In June 2006 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
agreed to hear the case. On March 23, 2007 the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld LaGuer's conviction.
and Democrat Deval Patrick
(see: Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006
) when it was revealed that Patrick had petitioned the parole board in 1998 and 2000 for LaGuer's freedom and had contributed financially to the DNA testing. In his letters to the parole board Patrick characterized LaGuer as "thoughtful and eloquent." He was criticized in two widely used television ads, considered by some analysts to be among the most negative in the 2006 campaign season. In one ad featuring a woman walking alone in a parking garage, the narrator asks, "have you ever heard a woman compliment a rapist?" The ad was widely perceived as backfiring on Healey because of its negative tone. Patrick ultimately won the race by a margin of more than 20 percentage points.
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. He has not acknowledged the crime for which he was convicted, claiming innocence. His case achieved prominence in the late 1980s when reporting by John King
John King (journalist)
John King is an American journalist and is the anchor of John King, USA which appears weeknights at 7pm/ET on CNN. He is also the former anchor of State of the Union with John King...
discovered a juror
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
who said that other members of the all-white-male jury uttered racist slurs before and during deliberations. His case became a flashpoint in the 2006 race for Massachusetts Governor
Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006
The Massachusetts gubernatorial election of 2006 was held on November 7, 2006. Former US Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick was elected to a four-year term, from January 4, 2007 until January 6, 2011. In his first elected office, Patrick is the second African-American governor in the United...
when it was revealed that Deval Patrick
Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick is the 71st and current Governor of Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney General under President Bill Clinton...
, the Democratic candidate, had corresponded with and supported the inmate over a period of several years.
Early life
LaGuer was born in The BronxThe Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and grew up in New York and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
until age 15 when he moved to Leominster, Massachusetts
Leominster, Massachusetts
Leominster is a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the second-largest city in Worcester County, with a population of 40,759 at the 2010 census. Leominster is located north of Worcester and west of Boston. Both Route 2 and Route 12 pass through Leominster. Interstate 190,...
to live with a half sister who was his father's daughter from a previous marriage. He attended high school in Leominster before dropping out in late 1980 to join the Army where he served in a support capacity in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. With an honorable discharge from the Army, he returned to Leominster in June 1983. On the morning of July 13, 1983 police were summoned to his neighbor's apartment where they discovered the 59-year-old woman bound and beaten. It was quickly determined to be a rape case. Two days later, on July 15, 1983, LaGuer was charged with the crime. He proclaimed his innocence but was convicted in Worcester Superior Court the following January and given a life sentence with eligibility for parole after 15 years.
Challenges to the conviction
Soon after starting his prison term LaGuer began studying in the law library and learned how to access the legal system on his own behalf and for other inmates. In 1991 a challenge LaGuer launched to his conviction two years earlier went all the way to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.-History:...
which rendered a landmark ruling in LaGuer's favor. At issue was whether an affidavit given by juror
Jury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
William Nowick that other members of the all-white-male panel made racist comments before and during deliberations constituted a violation of LaGuer's right to a fair trial. Even though the state's high court sided with LaGuer as a matter of law, it did not overturn the verdict, instead sending it back to the trial judge, Robert Mulkern, for a finding of fact. After a hearing in which some jurors were called to testify, Judge Mulkern ruled that the jury's deliberations were not tainted by racism. LaGuer exhausted his last appeal of that decision in 1994, more than ten years after his conviction.
The case became well known among activists, academics and journalists who came to believe strongly that LaGuer had suffered a gross miscarriage of justice. Starting in 1986, reporters who looked at the case found troubling questions about whether LaGuer in fact committed the crime. Among those who took an interest in the case and who corresponded with LaGuer were Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
laureate Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
winning author William Styron
William Styron
William Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...
, Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
professor Charles Ogletree
Charles Ogletree
Charles J. Ogletree is Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School, the founder of the school's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, and the author of numerous books on legal topics....
, and WBUR
WBUR
WBUR refers to two radio stations in Massachusetts, WBUR AM and FM, both owned by Boston University. WBUR is the largest of three NPR member stations in Boston, Massachusetts, along with WGBH and WUMB-FM, and the only one to focus exclusively on news and talk...
radio personality Jose Masso, who created the Benjamin LaGuer papers collection at Northeastern University. During that time LaGuer also earned a bachelors degree magna cum laude from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
and won a first place International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
award for an essay on his mother. In 1998 LaGuer was for the first time eligible for parole but was denied because he refused to admit to the crime. At that point he attracted an unlikely ally in Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
president and 1990 Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, John Silber
John Silber
John Robert Silber is an American academician and former candidate for public office. From 1971 to 1996 he was President of Boston University and from 1996 to 2003 Chancellor of the University. Since 2003 he has been its President Emeritus. In 1990, Silber took a leave of absence from the...
who helped arrange for pro bono legal representation. His team, which included members of McDermott, Will & Emery, the law firm William Weld
William Weld
William Floyd Weld is a former governor of the US state of Massachusetts. He served as that state's 68th governor from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department...
, Silber's opponent in the governor's race, had belonged to, successfully sued the parole board and forced a second hearing at which LaGuer was again denied parole.
Response to a DNA test that backfired
His legal team, led by law professor David SiegelDavid Siegel
David Siegel is an American motion picture screenwriter and director, and part of a long-standing writing-directing team with filmmaker Scott McGehee.-Filmography:*Suture *The Deep End *Bee Season *Uncertainty...
, a founding member of the New England Innocence Project
Innocence Project
An Innocence Project is one of a number of non-profit legal organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand dedicated to proving the innocence of wrongly convicted people through the use of DNA testing, and to reforming the criminal justice systems to...
, then sought and found the physical evidence from the crime and in 1999 McDermott, Will & Emery managing partner Robert Cordy, now a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.-History:...
, wrote to the Worcester District Attorney in an attempt to establish a protocol for DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
testing. The district attorney, John Conte
John Conte
John J. Conte was the District Attorney for Worcester County, Massachusetts , which includes 59 cities and towns in Worcester County and the town of Bellingham in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, USA. He was appointed by Gov. Michael Dukakis in 1976 and was elected to the first of seven terms in 1978...
, a former State Senator appointed by Governor Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
in 1976 to finish an unexpired term, rebuffed Cordy, in turn intimating that LaGuer's team may have tampered with the evidence. After more than two years of contentious and costly litigation a DNA test revealed a trace amount of LaGuer's genetic material in the evidence. Several forensic DNA experts, including Applied DNA Resources principal Theodore Kessis, John Jay College of Criminal Justice Associate Provost Lawrence Kobilinsky and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
geneticist Daniel Hartl, questioned the DNA test, and called for an investigation into its validity.
LaGuer continued to maintain his innocence and attracted the pro bono services of another high powered international law firm, Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is a prominent law firm based in the United States, consisting of 850 attorneys serving clients in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York City, Silicon Valley, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C....
, where James C. Rehnquist, a partner at the firm and son of the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist
William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...
, took over LaGuer's case. In February 2004 Rehnquist filed a motion for a new trial in Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
Superior Court seeking a new trial on the basis of a Massachusetts State Police
Massachusetts State Police
The Massachusetts State Police is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security responsible for criminal law enforcement and traffic vehicle regulation across the state...
report generated the day LaGuer was arrested showing that four fingerprints found on the base of the trimline telephone, the cord of which was used to bind the victim's wrists, did not match the defendant's. This revelation prompted concern from several law makers, including State Senator Jarrett Barrios
Jarrett Barrios
Jarrett Tomás Barrios is a politician, activist, and executive, currently serving as the chief executive of the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts. He was a member of both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate and became the first Latino and first openly...
, who made a written inquiry to the State Police crime lab. Rehnquist's position that the suppression of potentially exculpatory evidence (revealed in November 2001, almost 18 years after the trial) constituted a violation of LaGuer's right to a fair trial, was rejected by Worcester Superior Court Judge Timothy Hillman, who it was later revealed had once represented the victim's daughter in a probate matter related to her father's estate. Rehnquist appealed the decision where he was again denied. In June 2006 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The SJC has the distinction of being the oldest continuously functioning appellate court in the Western Hemisphere.-History:...
agreed to hear the case. On March 23, 2007 the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld LaGuer's conviction.
Political use of the LaGuer case in the Massachusetts Governor's race
In the fall of 2006 the LaGuer case became a dominant issue in the race between Republican Lieutenant Governor Kerry HealeyKerry Healey
Kerry Murphy Healey was the 70th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. She served from 2003 to 2007 with Governor Mitt Romney. She was the 2006 Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts, losing to Democrat Deval Patrick in November 2006...
and Democrat Deval Patrick
Deval Patrick
Deval Laurdine Patrick is the 71st and current Governor of Massachusetts. A member of the Democratic Party, Patrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney General under President Bill Clinton...
(see: Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006
Massachusetts gubernatorial election, 2006
The Massachusetts gubernatorial election of 2006 was held on November 7, 2006. Former US Assistant Attorney General Deval Patrick was elected to a four-year term, from January 4, 2007 until January 6, 2011. In his first elected office, Patrick is the second African-American governor in the United...
) when it was revealed that Patrick had petitioned the parole board in 1998 and 2000 for LaGuer's freedom and had contributed financially to the DNA testing. In his letters to the parole board Patrick characterized LaGuer as "thoughtful and eloquent." He was criticized in two widely used television ads, considered by some analysts to be among the most negative in the 2006 campaign season. In one ad featuring a woman walking alone in a parking garage, the narrator asks, "have you ever heard a woman compliment a rapist?" The ad was widely perceived as backfiring on Healey because of its negative tone. Patrick ultimately won the race by a margin of more than 20 percentage points.
Developments since 2006
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard LaGuer's appeal on January 4, 2007 and a ruling was rendered on March 23, 2007. The SJC unanimously upheld LaGuer's conviction. Soon after the decision a former caretaker to the victim stepped forward with new information about the victim's state of mind before and after the crime which raised previously unknown questions about the reliability of her identification. In March 2009 retired Superior Court Judge Isaac Borentstein took the case.Further reading
- Allen Fletcher, (1987, January 18), "Inmate From Leominster Struggles to Win Freedom", Telegram & Gazette.
- John King (1987, September 16), "LaGuer's Struggle for Freedom", Associated Press.
- John Strahinich, (1987, October), "A Reasonable Doubt", Boston Magazine.
- Francis Connelly, (1987, November 27) "Toward A Reasonable Doubt", Boston Phoenix.
- David Arnold, (1988, April 12), "A Convict Argues for his Freedom: Has Fought 5 Years to be Cleared of Rape", The Boston Globe.
- Michael Krasner, (1989, May 10), "Bid for New Trial by Leominster Man focus of PBS Show", Telegram & Gazette.
- Andrew Baron, (1989, July 12), "Why Can't This Man Get A New Trial", Worcester Magazine.
- John Strahinich, (1989, October), "Obsession: When a Reporter Has Finished with the Story, But the Story has not finished with the Reporter", Boston Magazine.
- John Hashimoto, (1991, January 4), "Justice Denied: Did Racist Remarks Taint the Jury of Ben LaGuer?", Boston Phoenix.
- Sean Flynn, (1991, August 30), "Oxymoronic: for Ben LaGuer, There's No Justice in the System", Boston Phoenix.
- Timothy Sandler, (1993, August 13), "Ben LaGuer Gets One Shot At Redemption", Boston Phoenix.
- Allen Fletcher, (1993, July 14), "Citizen LaGuer: A Life on Hold", Worcester Magazine.
- John Taylor, (1994 May), "And the Truth Shall Set Him Free. Or Will It?", Esquire Magazine.
- Mark Jurkowitz, (1996, January 9), "The Best PR Man Behind Bars: Lifer Masters the Media, Pitching his Innocence", The Boston Globe.
External links
- The Benjamin LaGuer papers, 1984-2000 (bulk 1998-2000) are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.
- The www.FreeBenNow.org Web site was set up in 2010 as an independent source of information on the LaGuer case.