Sean K. Ellis

Sean K. Ellis was convicted in 1995 – at his 3d trial – for the 1993 robbery and murder of Boston Police Detective John J. Mulligan. His first two trials ended in mistrial due to hung juries.

Sentenced to life in prison, Sean always proclaimed his innocence. He spent 21 years, 7 months, and 29 days behind bars until May 2015 – when Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball overturned his convictions, ruling that due to police corruption and prosecutors’ misconduct in his trial, “justice was not done.” Judge Ball granted him bail to await a new, fair trial, and on June 6, 2015, Sean was released from prison.

“Accordingly, the court concluded
that this is a case where
justice was not done.”

— Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball, May 2015

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts set the date for Sean’s fourth trial for the murder of Det. John Mulligan. Sean’s defense attorneys, Rosemary Scapicchio and Jillise McDonough, went to work, determined to prove his innocence. Then, abruptly, on December 2018, Suffolk County’s Acting District Attorney held a press conference to announce he was dropping the robbery and murder charges against Sean; in 2021, Sean’s 1995 weapons possession conviction was overturned by Judge Robert Ullman. And, in a final flourish, in 2021, the City of Boston awarded Sean $16 million atonement for misconduct by Boston police.

Netflix’s Trial 4

In November 2020, Netflix released Trial 4, an original, eight-part documentary series about Sean Ellis in which the creative teams (Gaumont and What’s Up Films) in 2017 began filming Sean and his lawyers preparing his defense for his anticipated fourth trial. Flashbacks tell the story of Det. John Mulligan’s murder and Sean’s arrest, and the filmmakers followed Sean’s evolving case until charges were dropped. Trial 4 quickly caught the interest of viewers from around the world and became Netflix’s #3 most-watched TV series. In August 2021, Newsweek rated Trial 4 one of the “Top-ten true-crime documentaries” on Netflix.

Due to Netflix’s global reach of, viewers from 99 countries have watched Trial 4, and hundreds have sent their well wishes to Sean through this website.

Sean today

Now a free man, Sean has built a rewarding new life. For several years he worked for a well-known Boston non-profit, Community Servings. He started out on the loading dock and not long after was promoted to a management position in the fundraising office.

From 2020-21 he was a Community Fellow in Tufts University’s Institute for Nonprofit Practice. After serving for several years as a trustee of the New England Innocence Project, (NEIP), he now works full-time for NEIP as founder and director of the project’s Exoneree Network.

Sean speaks frequently about his experiences in forums in and around Boston and has related his story at three national Innocence Network conferences: San Diego (2017), Memphis (2018), and Atlanta (2019).

justiceforseanellis.com

by Elaine Alice Murphy, creator and author

This website chronicles Sean’s story. I launched it in 2013 to support advocacy efforts for Sean’s release. Over time its content has grown to keep pace with Sean’s overturned convictions and the closing of his case.

I’m a longtime friend of Sean’s, having first met him when he was in the third grade in the same class as my son Mark at Mitchell Elementary School in Needham, MA, Needham’s population is predominantly white, and Sean was was bused there each school day from his Boston neighborhood through the METCO voluntary school integration program. Sean and Mark became fast friends.

A decade later, while living in Montreal, Canada, I was shocked to learn of Sean’s 1995 murder conviction. Moved by his protestations of innocence, I began visiting him in prison and joined forces with Sean’s mother and attorneys in a two-decade mission to exonerate him. .

*** * ***

In for Life: A Journey into Murder, Corruption, and Friendship by Elaine Alice Murphy

Available in paperback, e-book, and audiobook

I describe my experiences in investigating the Ellis case and visiting Sean in prison over two decades in my true-crime memoir., published in July 2023. It is available in bookstores and online at amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. For more information and links, visit www.BookInforLife.com