Two Black men have received a formal apology from the mayor of Boston decades after being wrongfully arrested on charges of killing a white woman.
While their families expressed gratitude for the apology, they want compensation for the 34 years their loved ones have carried the burden of being the one-time accused killers of a wife who her husband had killed in a faked carjacking.
Mayor Michelle Wu formally issued an apology on Dec. 20 to Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson on behalf of the city. She acknowledged that the two men did not get fair treatment because of the overwhelming racism in the town at the time.
“There was no evidence that a Black man had committed this crime,” Wu said. “But that didn’t matter because the story was one that confirmed and exposed the beliefs that so many shared.”
She added, “From residents and reporters to officers and officials, at every level and at every opportunity, those in power closed their eyes to the truth because the lie felt familiar. They saw the story they wanted to see.”
Wu said to the press that “a false, racist claim accusing a Black man” for the woman’s death “unleashed” terror on the Mission Hill community, according to the Boston Herald.
After her remarks, she presented the official letters of apology to the family of Bennett, who was not present, and Swanson.
In addition to the mayor, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox apologized on behalf of the police department for the “hurt and pain and suffering” caused by the department’s handling of the case, the murder of Carol Stuart.
On Oct. 23, 1989, Carol was fatally shot, killing her and the unborn child. At the time, she and her husband, Charles Stuart, were leaving a birthing class at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and getting in their car. Charles Stuart, who was also shot in his stomach but survived, told police they were carjacked and forced to drive to the Mission Hill district of Boston and…
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