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Connolly Cites Newly Unearthed Bulger Manuscript in Bid to Vacate 2008 Conviction

The motion says pages seized in 2011 emerged from a sealed file in 2024, raising Brady concerns over undisclosed evidence.

Overview

  • Lawyers for former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. filed a motion in Miami-Dade Circuit Court seeking to set aside his murder conviction or obtain a hearing.
  • The filing attaches excerpts from James "Whitey" Bulger’s handwritten manuscript and FBI interview reports seized in 2011 but said to have been withheld from the defense.
  • Bulger’s writings, as quoted in the motion, assert that Connolly was framed and identify former FBI supervisor John Morris as Bulger’s source inside the bureau.
  • Connolly’s team says the materials surfaced in 2024 inside a sealed envelope marked confidential following a prosecutor’s departure, prompting claims of Brady violations and a pattern of nondisclosure.
  • Connolly, 85, was convicted in 2008 in the John Callahan killing and granted compassionate release in 2021, while Bulger was captured in 2011, convicted in 2013, and killed in prison in 2018.