Man freed for Christmas after DA agrees he was wrongly convicted of murder in 1992

A Supreme Judicial Court justice yesterday ordered Robert Foxworth, now 53, freed from prison while a lower-court judge considers his request for a new murder trial - a request the Suffolk County District Attorney's office agreed to, saying he was "wrongly convicted."

A jury convicted Foxworth of second-degree murder for the 1991 death of Kenneth McLean of Dorchester. In her filing seeking his immediate request, DA Rachael Rollins wrote:

Robert Foxworth, a wrongfully-convicted man, currently sits in MCI-Shirley waiting, as he has for nearly thirty years, for justice. He has always maintained his innocence during those thirty years - being denied parole twice at least in part because he would not admit guilt and "take responsibility" for a crime he says he did not commit. Now, justice has finally arrived for Mr. Foxworth. Requiring him to remain in prison for even one additional day is a gross injustice that, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, may prove to be deadly

Also:

The Commonwealth can now say with confidence that significant constitutional violations occurred in securing Mr. Foxworth’s conviction, including a credible claim that a member of the prosecution team placed the lone eyewitness who identified Mr. Foxworth at trial in a cell during a break in the trial proceedings and coerced him into making the identification of Mr. Foxworth through threats. The witness, who was fifteen years old at that time, has since credibly recanted his identification. This DA’s Office, under this DA, will not stand behind a conviction obtained by threats, coercion, or any other unconstitutional means. And any day that a person - assumed innocent until proven guilty - is found guilty through these shameful and possibly criminal means spends incarcerated, is a day too long.

In a statement, Rollins added that should a Suffolk Superior Court judge order a new trial, her office will immediately file for nolle prosequi, to dismiss the charge.