A Springfield man convicted of murder in 1985 has been granted a new trial on his sixth attempt.
Edward Wright was found guilty in the killing of his friend Penny Anderson and has been incarcerated ever since. The murder occurred in 1984.
But a Hampden Superior Court judge granted him a new trial last week citing evidence prosecutors allegedly kept from Wright and false testimony given by a detective during the trial.
In the decision written by Judge Jeremy Bucci, he said prosecutors withheld information about a break in of Anderson’s apartment, which occurred after the murder and Wright’s arrest. Investigators also took footprint evidence after the break in and used it as the only source of forensic evidence against Wright at trial.
And during that trial, Detective Afred Ingham, formerly with the Springfield Police Department, testified that nobody but police had been inside the apartment. Ingham, however, documented the break in and that report was not turned over to Wright’s defense team until 2021.
“The court finds that Ingham’s blatantly false testimony on this key aspect of the prosecution’s case was intentional and was reasonably likely to have affected the jury’s judgement,” Judge Bucci wrote.
Radha Natarajan is the executive director of the New England Innocence Project and one of the lawyers representing Wright. She said his team of four attorneys visited Wright in prison to deliver the news.
"I think for the first time he can think about, he can dream about what does freedom hold for him," Natarajan said. "There's both sort of a pain of course with that, but there's also a sweetness to that," she said in an interview.
In a statement Wright echoed those sentiments, calling the news of a new trial “bittersweet”.
“There is bitterness for all the years I’ve lost in prison,” he said, “but also sweetness in the possibility of freedom.”
Wright remains incarcerated pending any appeals of the latest decision on a new trial. Natarajan said it is possible his legal team may seek his release on bail pending a new trial, if that comes to be.
The Hampden District Attorney’s Office prosecuted the case. In a statement, Hampden County District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni called the murder a "senseless and tragic act of violence."
He said a Hampden County jury convicted the defendant in 1985 after what he calls a fair trial.
"That conviction has been upheld time and time again by both the Trial Court and the Supreme Judicial Court, the Commonwealth’s highest court," he said in the statement.
Gulluni said the new trial is being granted on the same arguments that have been rejected before, adding that his office stands by the integrity of the original prosecution.
Natarajan disagrees. In a press conference in Boston on Thursday she reacted to Gulluni's statement.
"This is a shocking statement, given the unassailable evidence found by the judge. If this is integrity, then there are many more convictions out of Hampden County that need to be reviewed," she said.
Wright remains incarcerated in state prison.
