"With long odds, Bulger will have his day in court; List of charges — including 19 killings — is extensive as the trial opens this week" by Shelley Murphy | Globe Staff, June 02, 2013
James “Whitey” Bulger calls it “The Big Show,” his chance to vindicate himself after years of being portrayed in court proceedings, hearings, and books as a depraved gangster who strangled women, corrupted FBI agents, and informed on his friends.
“Want to refute lies + try to get my name cleared,’’ Bulger wrote to a friend from jail last year in a letter that was shared with the Globe.
Related: Bulger Begging For Justice
"Separately on Friday, Casper also denied a request from Bulger’s lawyers to be given the identity of a confidential informant who gave the FBI information in a victory for prosecutors"
But refuting the evidence laid before the jury in his long-anticipated trial, expected to begin with jury selection in US District Court in Boston on Tuesday and to run through the summer, will be an enormous task even for a man as cunning and as resourceful as Bulger, legal experts say.
The former South Boston gangster is facing 32 counts in an indictment that relies on federal racketeering laws, which allow prosecutors to pull in crimes that are well past the statute of limitations and to include murders, generally the jurisdiction of state courts. The indictment alleges that while running a criminal enterprise from 1972 to 2000, Bulger killed 19 people; extorted money from more than a dozen drug dealers, bookmakers, and businessmen; corrupted FBI agents and other law enforcement officials; laundered his illegal profits; and stockpiled an arsenal of weapons. The 32 counts include: racketeering conspiracy, racketeering, extortion conspiracy, extortion, money laundering conspiracy, 22 counts of money laundering, and five firearms counts.
Prosecutors are poised to call 80 witnesses and offer about 1,000 exhibits. The defense says Bulger, now 83, will take the stand, along with as many as 78 defense witnesses.
“Racketeering gives the government a unique advantage to package different types of crimes that otherwise could not be charged together,” said Martin Weinberg, a prominent Boston criminal defense attorney. “He’s going to be subject to a trial that may focus on murder, but he’ll also be required to defend against drug dealing, money laundering, firearms. . . . Jurors are going to be burdened with an overwhelming amount of evidence that Whitey Bulger made and spent huge amounts of money.”
When are the banks going to get hauled into court?
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After this trial, Bulger still faces murder charges in Oklahoma and Florida that carry the death penalty....
The FBI acknowledged that Bulger had been an FBI informant from 1975 to 1990, and much of their informant files were made public....
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Related:
Bulger trial is culmination of lengthy, dogged pursuit
Defense team tackles high-stakes case with zeal
It says clients include Tarek Mehanna; Weinberg said the team’s challenge will be in convincing jurors to forget Bulger’s reputation as a notorious crime figure. But they will also have an advantage in the cross-examination of some of Bulger’s alleged cohorts, who are the government’s key witnesses, while another notorious name cropped up. I figure Globe talked to him recently (Next Day Update).
Also see:
Former official denies looting church
US says kin of victims have right to speak in Bulger trial
Johnny Depp pulls out of Whitey Bulger biopic
I was going to wait for the movie.
"Courthouse gets set for Bulger trial" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff, May 30, 2013
With jury selection set to begin next week, Hollywood is about to collide with the typically low-key environs of the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse, with armed federal marshals standing sentry outside, the possibility of hundreds of spectators jockeying daily for a limited number of courtroom seats, and reporters arriving from around the world to chronicle the long-awaited trial of notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.
I am starting to believe that is what is "news" these days.
Anticipation of the trial’s start next week is expected to create a nearly cinematic climax to an extraordinary reign of terror, a years-long manhunt, and a capture that most people assumed would never happen, all of it overlaid with the specter of corruption at the highest levels of US law enforcement....
He was living just down the road from the local FBI office, and you can't tell me they didn't know where he was. They were just waiting for the right time to make the bust (like with the framed patsies) for public relations purposes. It's all script, folks. Massive media productions made to look real.
Hundreds of people will be flocking to the courthouse each day to witness the great American mob trial, and officials are scrambling to prepare accommodations....
The last time the court anticipated such a crowd was in the case of Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber,” who ultimately pleaded guilty in 2002....
Opening arguments could take place as soon as June 10....
And Fox and CNN will be there covering it all.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Fiery hearing previews ‘Whitey’ Bulger trial; FBI informant file to be presented; family impact testimony barred" by Shelley Murphy | Globe Staff, June 03, 2013
Prosecutors and defense lawyers traded fiery exchanges Monday during a hearing on the eve of James “Whitey” Bulger’s federal racketeering trial, previewing what is expected to be a long and contentious courtroom battle over the fate of one of Boston’s most notorious figures.
US District Judge Denise J. Casper issued a series of rulings that help lay the ground rules for the months ahead. She granted the prosecution’s request to present the entire FBI file on Bulger’s years as an informant. But she sided with the defense in ordering the government to strike the words “Bulger Group” from the indictment and instead refer to the alleged gang as a group of criminals.
The judge also ruled that relatives of Bulger’s alleged victims may testify and identify photographs of their loved ones and recall when they died, or disappeared. But she said they may not describe the impact of their loss, because the testimony would be too prejudicial.
Bulger, 83, wearing an orange jail-issued jumpsuit, sat solemnly between his two lawyers, frequently alternating between two pairs of eyeglasses, using one pair to read documents and another to look up at the judge as she methodically dealt with a battery of motions....
Bulger, who fled shortly before his 1995 racketeering indictment, was a fixture on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list before he was captured on June 22, 2011, living in Santa Monica, Calif.
“The reality is that for the last 20 years the government has done everything it can to pollute the jury pool,” Carney said. “It has demonized James Bulger so that he is recognizable nationwide. . . . They can’t have it that way and have the defense lawyer for the defendant stand mute.”
They had help.
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The Boston Globe’s lawyers asked Casper to allow two Globe staff members, columnist Kevin Cullen and the writer of this report, to cover the Bulger trial even though Carney has listed them as potential defense witnesses.
The journalists have covered organized crime in Boston since the 1980s, the filing said, and are the authors of a recent book about Bulger and the hunt for him.
Bulger’s lawyers also put Boston Herald columnist and talk show host Howie Carr and former Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neil, who have all authored books on Bulger, on the witness list.
Casper has yet to rule on whether the witnesses can attend the trial.
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