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DA to charge Alemany with Amy Lord's murder
By adamg on Thu, 08/01/2013 - 11:46am
The Globe reports.
Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley's remarks at a press conference this morning:
Earlier this morning, I authorized a warrant charging Edwin Alemany with murder for the July 23rd homicide of Amy E. Lord at the Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park.
Prior to making this decision public, I spoke by telephone with Ms. Lord's family to notify them personally about the very significant progress that police and prosecutors have made since Alemany's arrest on July 24th. They were relieved to learn of this development.
Suffolk Chief Trial Counsel John Pappas and the BPD Homicide Squad comprised of Sgt. Det. Paul McLaughlin and detectives Jeff Cecil, Jamie Sheehan, and Joe Keaveny have worked almost around the clock since the hour Amy's body was discovered. They've been assisted by Massachusetts State Police, including the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit, the Forensic Audio Video Imaging Unit of my office, the Boston Police Crime Lab, uniformed officers assigned to Districts C-6 and E-18, and civilian witnesses in the neighborhoods of South Boston and elsewhere.
This has been, in every way, a team effort, and I want to extend my thanks to each and every one of those who helped – especially those who stepped forward with the information they had, simply because it was the right thing to do.
Later today, a murder charge against Edwin Alemany will issue from the West Roxbury Division of the Boston Municipal Court. An arrest warrant will be lodged at Bridgewater State Hospital, and Alemany will be arraigned in West Roxbury at the conclusion of his current mental health evaluation. I am also authorizing presentation of evidence in Amy's murder to the Suffolk County Grand Jury, which is the most appropriate next step.
The confidentiality of the grand jury process, its ability to subpoena records and testimony, and the fact that it operates independent of district court boundaries will allow us to continue building the best and strongest case in Amy Lord's murder – and any other linked offenses.
The investigation reached a tipping point within the past 24 hours with witness statements, forensic evidence, and surveillance imagery, but we still have a great deal of work to do. This is an extremely complex case. It includes offenses in multiple locations over an extended period of time. Police, prosecutors, and civilians are still working this case and they'll continue those efforts until the truth is spoken in a Suffolk County courtroom.
Amy Lord was born a small town girl, but she came to love Boston and she called our city her home. Sadly, as in many of our cases, we never knew her in life – but we've come to know a bit about her and her family. They're people of extraordinary grace and dignity. As I mentioned, this morning I spoke to Amy's mother, Cindy Lord, and assured her that we will not rest until justice is finally done on her behalf. A formal murder charge is part of that process but we can't lose sight of our ultimate goal: a conviction at trial and a verdict upheld on appeal.
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Comments
Police appeared to be conducting a large-scale search
at Stony Brook Reservation about an hour ago. White plastic suits, two helicopters overhead, 20-30 officers all centered around the pond.
I wonder if it's related to the Lord case- God forbid it's something else.
Man....
I get that Alemany being free is a system issue that can't necessarily be blamed on a single person. But BPD has a lot of egg on its face with this case. If their detective had followed up with Alemany's assault last year, Amy Lord might be alive and maybe, just maybe, Alemany might be in prison.
Sad, sad case. Like something from The Wire.
System
With our revolving door court system, he would have been out already or jumped his $500 or so bail even if he got arrested in the first place. It usually takes a murder to go away for more than a year.
Hate crime
This guy probably could have gotten to Florida and still had some heroin left if he had spared this poor woman's life after robbing her. But he killed her instead, just because he wanted to. His motives were nothing more complicated than misogyny, hatred, and evil. It's rare you see this kind of pure malice, even nowadays. Alemany is the perfect poster boy for capital punishment if there ever was one.
I'll take a contrarian position
I have no interest in either punishing Alemany or attempting to rehabilitate him.
Punishment is morally irrelevant with someone who is incapable of reflection, remorse, or repentance.
By analogy, when I put out snap traps to break the necks of mice, it's not because I judge the mice as morally deserving of execution, or because I hate them, or because I want to teach them a lesson, or because I want to deter other mice. It's simply to stop them from chewing holes in my possessions.
I don't want Alemany executed because I don't believe in killing people. I just want him in a cage. Not to punish him, but simply to physically prevent him from injuring the rest of us. Make the cage comfortable for all I care -- it serves no purpose to make him suffer, just as it serves no purpose to torture the mice in my kitchen. Just physically separate him from the rest of us, forever.
I agree
"just physically separate him from the rest of us, forever."
In a hole, 6 feet underground, in a cement box!
I second that!
Let's throw away the key, while we're at it!
Lotsa Expensive Mice
Why don't you keep the mice in cages, then, instead of killing them, if that's not your primary intent?
Because you run out of space in your house/apartment/other, and don't feel like continuing to feed and clean up after said mouse, and because there is a chance that the mouse could accidentally be freed (cage falls and breaks open, etc.).
I want Alemany executed for the same reason you don't want to keep the mouse around. Both cage and lethal injection ensure he never kills again (although with the cage there is less certainty), but one costs an awful lot more and taxes systems already busting at the seams.
Plus, the "cage" that Alemany would occupy is a better dwelling than those housing the city's most indigent, between the free cable, medical care, continuing education, scumbag lawyers agitating on his behalf on taxpayers' dime, etc.
Alemany vs mice.
Because my moral framework prohibits needlessly killing people (and killing someone like Alemany is needless in the sense that keeping him permanently in a cage accomplishes exactly the same end) whereas it does not prohibit killing mice.
Yes, America's prison-industrial complex is bursting at the seams, since we incarcerate among the highest percentage of our population of any country on Earth. Perhaps if we turned loose the people who are serving lengthy jail sentences for nonviolent offenses (low level drug possession, for example?) we'd have more room for the likes of Alemany?
I happen to believe in the rule of law, and in a system where the best possible outcome is achieved through vigorous representation of all defendants -- that being the only way to keep the police and the judicial system in check. That would tend to make the lawyers who willingly defend hateful vermin like Alemany heroes rather than scumbags.
My moral framework prevents
My moral framework prevents needlessly killing people, too, but is far more concerned with preventing the needless killing of true innocents, and not murderers. That's what makes the death penalty so compelling to me: According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.
Not to be contentious or provocative, but may I ask if your moral framework influences your abortion view? And I don't mean in the "day after pill" sense, but the "late stage, baby could live on its own outside the womb" sense? Does it "prohibit needlessly killing people" in that context?
Amen to that, brother/sister. It would allow us to lock up a lot more violent offenders, and give them far less chance for early release due to the overcrowding you and I agree on.
I might agree on that in theory, but it sure is a broken system, isn't it? And I believe that the broken system does an awful lot more to compromise the safety of the innocents like Amy Lord than it does to put the rights of the Alemanys of the world in jeopardy. Look at how Alemany already slipped through the cracks and was free to kill- one might argue at what a good case he makes for a broken system/failed model of justice.
Surely you recognize that scumbag/hero lawyers are still doing their jobs when they free murderers on legal technicalities? Within the rule of law, sure, but is that justice? Who wins but the Alemanys?
Design comfy prisons?
"Make the cage comfortable for all I care"... think about the effects that kind of prison system would have on society... without punishment, the only incentive to NOT commit a crime would be morality, which not everyone has. Also, think about how much MONEY would be spent on nicer prisons that house people for a longer period of time. Many people would even have better, easier lives in your type of prison! You seem to be only looking at ONE purpose of prison, which is to temporarily protect the public from a particular person. I know maybe you weren't that serious or didn't think it though, but this stuff is important to think about.
The next Amy Lord and the last one.
If you want to prevent the next Amy Lord style murder, read this and share it with everyone you know. Home invasions and carjackings usually precede forced ATM withdrawals. This link is to an article about a very specific crime pattern called the "Express Kidnapping" which is basically an abduction and forced ATM withdrawal. It explains the details of how the crime pattern plays out, how to expose the data and most importantly, the details of how political corruption keeps the pattern from being tracked by the police. If you or someone you know was the victim of such a crime, read this and share it with everyone you know. Then send it to your local newspaper, news station, banker and legislator. Get them to investigate it. This applies worldwide, not just in the US. http://atmsafetypin.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/8/