On eve of third trial, man admits he stabbed enemy to death in a South Boston bar

Joseph Downey, 46, pleaded guilty today to plunging a knife into James Murphy in 1997 in revenge for a beating Murphy administered to him the week before, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Downey had been tried and convicted twice before, but each time the verdict was overturned by the Massachusetts Appeals Court, once because his lawyers wore hidden microphones for a documentary without telling him and once because the judge improperly cleared the courtroom during juror selection.

Prosecutors say Downey and his brother Daniel caught up with Murphy in the back of Kelly's Cork and Bull in South Boston in 199. As Daniel held Murphy, Joseph fatally stabbed him. Prosecutors say Downey was upset because Murphy was dating an ex-girlfriend of his and because Murphy had beaten him up in a fight the week before. Daniel had earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Downey was sentenced to 17 to 20 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. He will serve the term, less credit for the time he's spent in jail awaiting the past trials, at MCI Cedar Junction.

Downey still faces charges that he stomped a woman in search of money last year. The judge in the murder case denied his request that his sentence be stayed until after a March 20 hearing in South Boston District Court so that he wouldn't have to be transported back into town from Walpole, the DA's office reports.