Quinn Emanuel Overturns Life Sentence After 4 Decades of Wrongful Imprisonment

Quinn Emanuel achieved a groundbreaking victory for Edward Wright, who spent the last 40 years serving a life-without-parole sentence for a murder he did not commit. Eddie is now a free man.

Working alongside co-counsel at the New England Innocence Project and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates, Isaac N. Saidel-Goley and team successfully secured a new trial after demonstrating multiple critical failures in the original case. We proved that the Commonwealth withheld exculpatory evidence and that a key witness gave false testimony at trial. New DNA testing excluded Eddie from crucial evidence, whilst forensic experts confirmed the unreliability of the evidence used in his initial trial. Additionally, we showed that the prosecution repeatedly invoked racial stereotypes during proceedings - factors known to significantly increase the risk of wrongful conviction.

For more on the decision, read this coverage from the Boston Globe here.

Learn more about our pro bono work here.