The city of Boston, Massachusetts, is paying $150,000 to two Black men who were wrongfully accused of the murder of a pregnant white woman, a crime later determined to have been committed by her husband.
On Sept. 23, city officials approved a $150,000 settlement for Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett, two wrongfully identified suspects in the 1989 killing of Carol Stuart, NBC News reports. Stuart’s husband had claimed she was shot during an attempted carjacking by a Black gunman. But it was later determined that he orchestrated the murder after leaving a birthing class.
Bennett will receive $100,000, while Swanson will receive $50,000. The case prompted a police crackdown in a predominantly Black neighborhood and intensified racial tensions in the city.
During the orchestrated attack, Carol Stuart was shot in the head and died the following day, while her baby, delivered by cesarean section, survived for 17 days. Police initially arrested Swanson, then ruled him out, before taking Bennett into custody.
Charles Stuart, who was shot in the chest but survived, later identified Bennett as the gunman, though neither man was ever formally charged. Months later, Stuart died by suicide after his account of the crime unraveled.
The settlement comes two years after Mayor Michelle Wu apologized to Swanson and Bennett for the wrongful labeling of them as suspects and the harm and turmoil it caused the Black community.
“We are here today to acknowledge the tremendous pain that the city of Boston inflicted on Black residents throughout our neighborhoods 34 years ago,” Wu said at the time. “The mayor’s office, city officials and the Boston Police Department took actions that directly harmed these families and continue to impact the larger community, reopening a wound that has gone untended for decades.”
Police only turned to the real suspect after Matthew Stuart revealed that his brother, Charles, was responsible for Carol’s death. Before he could be arrested, Charles Stuart jumped from Tobin Bridge. The case has since drawn renewed attention with the release of the HBO docuseries Murder in Boston.
“There was no evidence that a Black man committed this crime,” Wu added. “But that didn’t matter because the story was one that confirmed and exposed the beliefs that so many shared…At every level and at every opportunity, those in power closed their eyes to the truth because the lie felt familiar. They saw the story they wanted to see.”
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