edward wright

In 1984, at just 22 years old, Edward Wright was arrested and charged with the murder of his friend, Penny Anderson, who was found killed in her Springfield, Massachusetts apartment. Mr. Wright had no motive to harm Ms. Anderson, a fact later acknowledged by the courts. Yet in 1985, a predominantly white jury convicted Mr. Wright, a Black man, of this murder, leading to a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. 

The Crime

For more than four decades, Mr. Wright steadfastly maintained his innocence and pursued every legal avenue available to challenge his wrongful conviction, even as prosecutors intentionally hid crucial evidence supporting his innocence from him and from the courts.

It was not until 2021 that this evidence finally came to light, evidence never reviewed before by any court. In October 2023, after years of investigation, the New England Innocence Project filed Mr. Wright’s sixth Motion for New Trial. Mr. Wright’s motion demonstrates that for decades, the Commonwealth withheld important police reports implicating another suspect and documenting a break-in to Ms. Anderson’s apartment while it was an active crime scene—before critical evidence was collected—showing that the scene had been contaminated. The reports also provided proof that the same detective who documented the break-in gave false testimony at trial that only police officers had entered the apartment. Prosecutors continued to deny the existence of evidence of a break-in and made false statements in court filings for years, including in filings as late as 2014. In addition, these reports show that one suspect never thoroughly investigated by police had strong motive to commit the murder, threatened to harm the victim the night she was murdered, and has since confessed to murdering her twice.

The investigation

New DNA testing—unavailable at the time of trial—excluded Mr. Wright from key pieces of evidence, including items of clothing worn by the victim and a washcloth with blood that could have come from the assailant. The absence of Mr. Wright’s DNA on items connected to a violent crime such as this, and the presence of an unknown male’s DNA, strongly suggests that someone else committed this crime. The DNA evidence also supports new expert analyses that demonstrate that the opinions presented by an inexperienced state chemist at Mr. Wright’s trial were inaccurate and unreliable.

The trial

On April 11, 2025, Hampden County Superior Court Judge Jeremy Bucci vacated Mr. Wright’s conviction. In a detailed decision, the court found that the prosecution had knowingly and intentionally withheld “significant” exculpatory evidence of a break-in at the crime scene and that a detective had given "blatantly false testimony” at trial on matters central to the prosecution’s case. He went on to note that the withheld information affected the “only forensic evidence tying [Mr. Wright] to the blood in the apartment.” The Court concluded that these violations undermined confidence in the verdict and rendered the conviction fundamentally unjust.

The exoneration

Mr. Wright was released from prison on July 31, 2025, after more than 41 years behind bars. He was reunited with his wife and family and began the difficult process of adjusting to a world that had moved on without him.

On August 21, 2025, the Commonwealth filed a nolle prosequi, formally ending the prosecution and thereby fully exonerating Edward Wright. With that filing, all remaining legal restrictions were lifted, and Mr. Wright was finally, truly free.

While the Commonwealth chose to dismiss the case, it did so without acknowledging the misconduct that led to Mr. Wright’s wrongful conviction and decades of incarceration. Despite explicit judicial findings, the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office has refused to take responsibility for their actions that led to Mr. Wright’s wrongful conviction and prolonged incarceration for over 40 years.

“It is unfortunately part of a familiar old playbook that when faced with uncontrovertible evidence of its own misconduct, the Commonwealth buries its head in the sand,” said Stephanie Roberts Hartung, Mr. Wright’s attorney from the New England Innocence Project. “Rather than acknowledging that false testimony and hidden evidence led to the wrongful conviction of an innocent man, the prosecution instead clings to a blind insistence on his guilt. We are thrilled that Eddie is finally free, but we cannot call it justice when it took him 41 years to get here.”

“Edward Wright was Penny Anderson’s friend, and his conviction has never meant justice,” said Radha Natarajan, another of Mr. Wright’s attorneys. “Instead, this wrongful conviction has led only to prolonged devastation for two families, two communities, and our entire legal system.”

The New England Innocence Project represented Mr. Wright for ten years in the pursuit of his exoneration, working alongside pro bono attorneys from international law firms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

Isaac Saidel-Goley, a pro bono attorney from  Mr. Wright’s legal team adds, “For half a lifetime, the Commonwealth tried to write Eddie’s story for him — inked with poison, each page blotted in deceit.  Today, Eddie pens his own ending — vindicated, injustice burned clean by truth.” 

“I am overjoyed that Eddie, my friend, can begin to move past this horrific ordeal.  I hope the Commonwealth does not move past it so quickly and instead takes a hard look at the failure of its justice system that caused an innocent man to be wrongfully imprisoned for more than 41 years,” said Nigel Tamton, another member of Mr. Wright’s legal team.

Since his release, Eddie has savored every moment of his freedom. He has reunited with friends, families, and supporters who stood by him for decades. He has a new fishing rod and caught his first fish in the Mystic River in Medford. It was too small to keep, but that didn’t diminish the thrill. He is slowly getting used to a world that looks entirely different from the one he left in 1984 when he was arrested at age 22. 

“All I’ve ever wanted is to clear my name and be reunited with my family,” Eddie shared. “My release from prison is the first step in a long journey. I just want to heal and share what’s left of my life with those loved ones who are still alive.”