Judge’s Agreement to Resign Could Open Pandora’s Box
A Massachusetts judge’s agreement to resign due to a permanent disability that makes him unable to perform his duties could provide fodder for appeals of cases he has heard.
Judge Ernest Murphy is stepping down under an agreement approved by Massachusetts’ highest court. The judge did not specify the nature of the disability, but in the past he has said he suffers from post-traumatic stress because of stories that portrayed him as soft on crime and insensitive to victims. Murphy sued the Boston Herald for the stories and won a $2 million verdict.
Lawyer Randy Chapman, president of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys, told the Boston Herald that the unusual declaration could prompt appeals. “If he was standing in judgment of cases and was somehow impaired, that could be fertile ground for defense lawyers and perhaps prosecutors to ask for a reconsideration of his rulings,” he said. “You assume a judge is mentally stable.”
The agreement is the result of a newly disclosed ethics complaint that contends the judge has issues that are “likely bases for inappropriate behavior and failure to make sound decisions on which to rest judicial rulings,” the Herald story says. Details of the complaint were not disclosed.
Another ethics complaint pending against Murphy claims he sought a higher settlement amount in “bizarre” and “threatening” letters to the publisher of the Boston Herald.
