A Free Man

Verdict Overturned

On May 5, 2015, Sean Ellis's murder and armed robbery convictions were overturned in Suffolk Superior Court by Judge Carol S. Ball, who ruled "justice was not done" at his trial due to Brady violations by Suffolk County prosecutors and the bias of three investigating detective (see 2015: Overturned Verdicts & Release).

On June 3, 2015, Judge Ball released Sean on $50,000 bail, which was raised by his family in a grassroots effort. The Judge required him to wear a GPS monitoring device. Suffolk County D.A. Dan Conley vowed to try him yet a fourth time for the robbery and murder of Boston Det. John Murder in 1995.

In September 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld Judge Ball's ruling to overturn Sean's convictions. Chief Justice Ralph Gants, now deceased, wrote the opinion. (see 2016: SJC Hearing and Ruling).

At the SJC’s hearing the previous June, Chief Justice Gants called the new knowledge of victim John Mulligan’s criminal complicity with three investigators of his murder "a major game changer."

Life outside

After his release, Sean lived under the cloud of a looming fourth murder trial. Suffolk County prosecutors initially scheduled his fourth trial for mid-October 2018 and then moved the date to September 9, 2019. But On December 18, 2018, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts abruptly dropped charges against him. Off came the GPS device he’d worn on his ankle since 2015. Disappointingly, interim D.A. John Pappas and Boston Police Commissioner William Gross refused to exonerate Sean (see 2018: Charges Dropped).

Sean Ellis lives an admirable life. It took him a while to adjust to society after having been incarcerated since age 19 – more than half his life. After his release, his family and friends and legal team rallied to help. A kind official at his mother's church provided him housing for the first three years, while he got his bearings. Friends funded his attendance at a driver's education course (he was a first-time driver at age 41) and gave him a computer and a serviceable used car.

Now in his mid-40s, Sean avoids the club scene and focuses on his large extended family around Boston and his growing circle of friends.

After initial stints on a demolition crew, he was hired by Community Servings, a Boston non-profit agency that prepares and delivers medically appropriate meals to ill and elderly home-bound residents. He started out on the shipping dock, was later moved to the reception desk, and in summer 2020 was promoted to management. Now a Development Associate, he helps raise funds for the organization and works on community outreach.

In spring 2018 Sean’s sister, Shar’Day, purchased a multi-family home north of Boston, and Sean energetically launched into repairs and renovations.

His personal life has never been happier or more stable. In 2021 he plans to wed a colleague at Community Servings. '

In fall 2020 he began a Community Fellowship at the Tufts University Institute for Non-Profit Practice, a program for rising social change leaders. And, after having served as a trustee of the New England Innocence Project (NEIP) since 2019, in 2022 he became a full-time employee at the project, founding and now directing its Exoneree Network .

He speaks frequently about his experiences in forums around Boston. With the permission of the court (when his charges were still pending), he traveled out of state with his sister, Shar'Day, and told his story at three national Innocence Network conferences: San Diego (2017), Memphis (2018), and Atlanta (2019).

Sean Ellis is finally free.

SEAN ELLIS DESERVES A CHANCE FOR REAL JUSTICE

by Eileen McNamara

Sometimes, the criminal justice system finally gets it right. Even for a black man. Even in Boston. Sometimes, it takes a team of women to get it done.

When Sean K. Ellis walks free on bail for the murder of a corrupt Boston police detective that he has insisted through three trials and 21 years in prison he did not commit, he will have three righteous women to thank.

Time for real justice in the case of Sean Ellis

May 13, 2015
By Elaine A. Murphy

In 1993, Boston Detective John Mulligan was brutally murdered with five shots to his face as he slept in his parked SUV outside a Roslindale Walgreens.

In 1995, Suffolk County prosecutors convicted Dorchester’s Sean Ellis of murder and armed robbery in his third trial, after his first two trials ended in hung juries. He was 19 at the time of the crime.

Thankful for his freedom, Sean Ellis adjusts to life outside of prison

November 26, 2015
By Elaine A. Murphy

Sean Ellis has a huge reason to be thankful this week: On Thursday, he will celebrate his first Thanksgiving as a free man in 22 years.

The 41-year-old Dorchester native was released from prison in June after serving more than half his life for the 1993 murder and robbery of Boston Police detective John Mulligan, a crime that for more than two decades he has insisted he did not commit.