Criminial Justice
Lawyer’s racist and anti-Muslim rants on social media entitle defendant to new trial, court docket guidelines
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket granted Anthony J. Dew a brand new trial on the idea of ineffective help of counsel. Photograph by Shutterstock.com.
The highest court docket in Massachusetts has granted a brand new trial to a Black, Muslim defendant whose appointed lawyer expressed “vitriolic hatred” and racism in social media posts.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket granted a brand new trial for Anthony J. Dew in a June 15 opinion. Dew was represented by court-appointed lawyer Richard Doyle, who died in 2021.
The court docket mentioned Doyle’s “unabashed anti-Muslim rants” on-line “had been matched solely by his equal scorn for and racism in opposition to Black individuals.” A few of the on-line posts on Fb had been apparently comprised of the courthouse.
Doyle additionally chastised Dew for sporting non secular garb, telling him to not put on “that shit” once more and as soon as refusing to speak with Dew as a result of he was sporting a kufi prayer cap.
Doyle “didn’t depart his deep-seated bigotry on the courthouse door,” the court docket mentioned.
The court docket concluded that Dew was disadvantaged of his proper to efficient help of counsel due to the “battle of curiosity inherent in counsel’s bigotry in opposition to individuals of the defendant’s religion and race.”
Law360, Above the Law, the Associated Press and the Legal Profession Blog are among the many publications with protection.
Doyle had been appointed to symbolize Dew in February 2016. He suggested Dew to simply accept a plea deal, resulting in Dew’s June 2016 responsible plea to intercourse trafficking and different expenses. One cost of rape was dismissed by settlement of prosecutors.
Dew was sentenced to eight to 10 years in jail adopted by seven years of probation.
On the time, Dew was not conscious of Doyle’s anti-Muslim posts.
One shared put up, for instance, confirmed {a photograph} of a pig with engorged testicles, captioned, “Expensive Muslims … Kiss our large bacon balls.” Different posts referred to “goat f—ers” and “camel shaggers” and celebrated torture of a “raghead terrorist prisoner.”
One other shared put up confirmed a poster for the film The Waterboy with the identify and face of Black soccer participant Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled through the nationwide anthem, superimposed on it.
The court docket mentioned it couldn’t know with certainty whether or not Doyle’s actions throughout Dew’s illustration had been motivated by Dew’s pursuits. However “on the document earlier than us, we can not credibly assume that Doyle’s illustration was not affected by his virulent anti-Muslim and racist views.”
Dew “has greater than met his burden to ascertain that Doyle’s illustration of him was impaired by an precise battle of curiosity,” the court docket mentioned.
