Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A Florida state court panel on Wednesday ruled that former FBI Agent John J. Connolly Jr. was wrongfully convicted of participating in a plot to kill a Florida businessman in 1982 at the urging of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the three-judge appellate panel tossed out the murder conviction, citing a legal technicality.
The government is expected to appeal the decision.
Connolly is serving a 40-year sentence that began in 2011.
Former FBI agents expressed relief.
“We won,” said former agent Richard Baker of Boston, who has led the coalition of ex-FBI agents. “I’m very delighted he’s going to finally get to see his kids on every holiday there is. I just have to pray now that somebody doesn’t come out of the woodwork and put a wrench in it…. He’s not out of jail yet.”
