Man convicted in 2013 murder of South Boston woman asks federal judge to toss conviction, release him
“In pursuing a defense of lack of criminal responsibility, [Alemany’s] attorneys violated his right to choose whether to admit guilt for the charged offenses.”
A man serving a life sentence for the 2013 stabbing death of a South Boston woman is asking a federal judge to toss out his conviction and release him from prison because, he claims, his trial attorneys pursued an insanity defense without his consent, according to documents filed Monday in the US District Court for Massachusetts.
A jury found Edwin J. Alemany guilty of first-degree murder following his 2015 trial for kidnapping Amy E. Lord as she left her home on July 23, 2013, forcing her to make five ATM withdrawals, and then stabbing her 40 times in Hyde Park. The Supreme Judicial Court upheld his conviction last year, ruling that the evidence against him in the attack on Lord and two other women who survived was overwhelming, despite mistakes made by the prosecutor and judge in the trial.
On Monday, Alemany’s attorney, Andrew S. Crouch, filed a writ of habeas corpus arguing his client’s constitutional rights were violated when his request for a new trial based on “ineffective assistance of counsel” was denied without holding an evidentiary hearing. Alemany “repeatedly informed his attorneys that he did not want them to pursue a criminal responsibility defense and thereby acknowledge his guilt,” Crouch wrote. Their failure to follow his wishes, Crouch wrote, violated his Sixth Amendment rights.
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