Mayor, police commissioner apologize to two men falsely accused of killing Carol Stuart in 1989 - and to Boston's Black community

Mayor Wu and Police Commissioner Michael Cox today apologized to Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson, who were investigated and even arrested for supposedly killing Carol Stuart when, in fact, it was her husband Charles who shot her after they left a childbirth class at Brigham and Women's Hospital on Oct. 23, 1989.

Stuart was never officially charged with the murder because he threw himself off the Tobin Bridge as investigators, having first upended much of the Black community in Boston, realized he was the likely suspect.

"I am so sorry for what you endured," Wu told the Swanson and Bennett families. "I am so sorry for the pain you have carried for so many years. What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist and wrong. And this apology is way overdue."

She continued: "To every Black resident, I am sorry not only for the abuse that our city enacted but for the beliefs and bias that brought them to bear in the first place."

Wu detailed the wrongs that were done:

The mayor's office, city officials and the Boston Police Department took actions that directly harmed these families and continue to impact the larger community, re-opening a wound that has gone untended for decades. The mayor's office, city officials and the Boston Police Department took actions that directly harmed these families and continue to impact the larger community, re-opening a wound that has gone untended for decades. In response to the murder of Carol Stuart and her child, and acting on a false, racist claim, framing a Black man for her death, the city launched a systemic campaign, targeting Black men in Mission Hill and across our neighborhoods. Black fathers, Black uncles, Black brothers and Black sons, if you were a partner or a child or a friend, if you knew and loved a Black man in Boston, you feared for his life.

She thanked Swanson, Bennett and their families for "the strength and grace that you bring today and that you have for 34 years - and I thank you for you faith in our capacity to do better."

Police Commissioner Michael Cox also apologized to the two men and to the DiMaiti family. "On behalf of the Boston Police Department, as commissioner, I apologize for the hurt, pain and suffering experienced by everyone affected by the Boston Police Department for their poor investigation, their overzealous behavior and more likely their unconstitutional behavior."

Cox said that when he was being interviewed for the commissioner job he took last year - after his own experience with Boston Police racism - he was asked repeatedly how the department to repair trust with communities of color when "there's been a wrong in the past."

"First and foremost, it has to acknowledge it has to apologize for it and then don't repeat it," he said.

Joey Bennett, Willie Bennett's nephew, accepted Wu's apology, but said more remains to be done. He said family members will be at Roxbury Community College tomorrow afternoon to talk - after 34 years of being kept silent.

Former City Councilor Tito Jackson, broke down in tears as he described 30 years of missed lives for the families. "We can, we must and we should do more for these families," he said.

Leslie Harris, who represented Swanson, recounted how he had to be held in a solitary cell at the old Charles Street Jail so he wouldn't be murdered as a baby killer by other inmates. "I don't know how you survive that," he said, adding that while he is thankful to the Globe's Adrian Walker's recent series, he said it's time for the Globe, the Herald and local TV stations to apologize for what they did to the families as well.

Watch the entire press conference: