Black Muslim Man's Convictions Overturned after Court Finds His Lawyer Was Racist
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that the defendant was denied his right to effective assistance of counsel, “a right upon which our entire system of criminal justice depends,” because his lawyer, Richard Doyle, had a conflict of interest due to his bigotry.
“Indigent and facing multiple felony charges, the defendant was appointed counsel who openly posted, on his social media account, his vitriolic hatred of and bigotry against persons of the Muslim faith; his unabashed anti-Muslim rants were matched only by his equal scorn for and racism against Black persons,” the court wrote, according to the Associated Press.
The court said that the defense lawyer’s racism did not stop even after he took the case.
The defendant, Anthony Dew, was released from prison on parole on the same day as the court’s decision, according to his appeals lawyer, Edward Gaffney.
“I’m happy, of course. Our position was that he was denied his constitutional rights, and this decision confirms that our position was correct,” Gaffney said.
He said it was an unusual case.
“This situation was so strange. We could not find a similar case and we could not fit this extreme fact pattern into existing law,” he said.
The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations supported Dew’s appeal to the high court and filed a brief on his behalf.
“It’s often hard enough for members of marginalized communities to obtain justice in our criminal legal system,” Legal Director Barbara Dougan said in a statement. “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.”
The Suffolk district attorney’s office now has to decide whether to retry the case, drop the charges, or negotiate another plea deal.
“The anti-Muslim and racist sentiments expressed by this defense attorney are reprehensible,” Jim Borghesani, a spokesperson for Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “While we vigorously pursue convictions in every prosecution we bring forward, we recognize the societal imperative of effective and unbiased representation for all defendants. We are reviewing the underlying case and will determine our future actions based on that review.”
Dew was indicted in March 2015 on 19 charges, including five counts of trafficking a person for sexual servitude and one count of rape.
On one of the first occasions Dew met his defense attorney, he was wearing a prayer cap known as a kufi. Doyle demanded he remove the cap and said, “Don’t come in this room like that ever,” according to the court. At another meeting, the attorney left the room without speaking to Dew upon seeing that he was again wearing a kufi.
Doyle urged Dew to accept a plea deal in the case, and in 2016, he pleaded guilty to all of the charges he faced, except for rape, which was dismissed as part of the deal. He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Dew did not become aware of his attorney’s bigoted posts until 2021, the same year Doyle died. Dew filed a motion for a new trial and asked to withdraw his guilty pleas. A lower court judge denied his motion and it went to the high court.
