Boston mayor apologizes to men wrongfully arrested for 1989 murder
More than 34 years after Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett were wrongfully arrested and accused of committing a crime that shocked the city, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a formal apology to the two men.
At a Wednesday press conference at City Hall, Wu issued an apology to the two Black men who were linked to the murder of Carol Stuart, a pregnant woman who was shot and killed by her husband, Charles Stuart, on Oct. 23, 1989.
“I am so sorry for the pain that you have carried for so many years. What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist and wrong and this apology is long overdue,” Wu said to Swanson and members of Bennett’s family, who stood in for him at the announcement.
Swanson and Bennett were both investigated as suspects and publicly tied to the crime after Stuart said that a Black man hijacked his car as he and his wife were leaving a hospital in the city and robbed the couple before shooting and killing Carol.
Though neither Swanson nor Bennett were ultimately charged (Stuart’s brother, Matthew, confessed he knew his brother was responsible and helped him hide the gun) the incident inflamed racial tensions in the city. In the aftermath of the case, the city launched “a systemic campaign targeting black men in Mission Hill and across our neighborhoods,” Wu said.
The apology after a sweeping investigation by the Boston Globe alongside an HBO documentary shined a new light on the case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.