June 16th 2023.
Anthony Dew, a Black Muslim man, had his sex trafficking conviction vacated by the Supreme Judicial Court after racist posts from his court-appointed attorney, Richard Doyle, were made public. The justices unanimously found that Doyle had ideas that made it impossible for him to effectively represent Dew.
The posts included “anti-Muslim slurs and statements calling for violence against and celebrating the death of persons of the Muslim faith, posts mocking Black individuals, and comments, some apparently made at a state court house, seemingly referring to Doyle’s clients as ‘thugs’ and suggesting that Doyle’s nonwhite clients were criminals”, according to the court. Doyle had continued to post these hateful messages for more than four years, including when he was representing Dew.
Dew had been indicted in March 2015 on 19 charges, including five counts of trafficking of a person and one count of rape. He plead guilty to all charges except the rape and began his sentence of 10 years in 2016.
Dew’s appeals lawyer, Edward Gaffney, enlisted the help of the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations to defend his position before the high court. Barbara Dougan, the council’s legal director, commented on the court’s ruling: “It’s often hard enough for members of marginalized communities to obtain justice in our criminal legal system. Here, the court refused to minimize the level of religious and racial hatred that the defense attorney displayed—indeed, publicly posted for the world to see.”
Finally, after serving six years in prison, Dew was released on parole on Thursday, June 15, 2023. This was a victory for both Dew and the Muslim community in Massachusetts.
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