Bristol County DA's Office Fights DNA Testing, Despite Court Order
New England Innocence Project and Ropes & Gray Pursue Truth for Client,
Shawn Tanner, As His Dying Wish
Attorney Jessica Dormitzer from Ropes & Gray will argue before the Supreme Judicial Court on Monday, November 3, at the John Adams Courthouse (9 AM), that court-ordered DNA testing should continue for New England Innocence Project client, Shawn Tanner, despite his untimely death before testing was completed. This hearing was made necessary by the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office’s efforts to prevent that testing from being completed, in spite of the court order.
Shawn Tanner, while released on medical parole, shortly before his untimely death in 2022.
Shawn Tanner was convicted of a 1988 murder in Dartmouth, MA, for which he always maintained his innocence. In 2021, after discovering that the physical evidence in Mr. Tanner’s case had been preserved and could be subject to DNA testing, Mr. Tanner was diagnosed with an aggressive form of terminal brain cancer.
That same year, Mr. Tanner filed a motion to conduct DNA testing on the evidence, which would be paid for by the New England Innocence Project, so the truth could come out in his case. While initially objecting to the testing, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office eventually agreed in 2022. A Superior Court judge ordered the testing, and the Commonwealth, which had access to the evidence at all times, was then responsible for sending the evidence to a private lab. While some items of evidence in Mr. Tanner’s case were sent to the lab, important evidence–the victim’s fingernail scrapings–were never sent.
That September, Shawn Tanner passed away from his illness. “It was his dying wish to have the evidence tested and his name cleared,” said Laura Carey, Staff Attorney at the New England Innocence Project. “But, instead of complying with the court order, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office has expended a considerable amount of time and resources to prevent DNA testing results, and the truth, from coming out in this case.”
To date, the evidence has still not been tested to completion, and the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office continues its efforts to prevent additional testing, going so far as to ask the Superior Court to stop the testing altogether and vacate the court order. When that effort failed, the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office asked the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) to step in.
It is not only Mr. Tanner and his family who seek the truth in this case. Families of victims of similar murders that took place in the area at similar times and locations have asked the SJC to ensure that testing continues in this case because it might provide long-sought answers in the decades-old unsolved murders of their loved ones. As stated in their brief to the SJC: “The siblings and children of the women murdered by the New Bedford Highway Murderer between 1988 and 1989 have never stopped hoping for answers that this DNA testing could provide, and they deserve a criminal justice system that pursues evidence with the same relentlessness. They deserve a criminal justice system that completes the testing ordered by the Superior Court.”
In addition, many others have written to the SJC to argue for DNA testing to be completed in this case, despite Mr. Tanner’s death. For example, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the Boston Bar Association (who drafted the legislation governing post-conviction DNA testing), the Committee for Public Counsel Services (the Massachusetts public defender agency), the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Innocence Project in New York are all on the same side of this issue, arguing that the DNA testing should continue here if the goals are truth, justice, the integrity of the legal system, prosecutorial ethics, and honoring legislative intent.
“This case has the potential to provide answers for Mr. Tanner’s case as well as other unsolved cases in the area,” adds New England Innocence Project Staff Attorney Laura Carey. “In addition, the Court’s ruling will send a message that it is never too late to pursue the truth.”
Additional Case Background
Mr. Tanner was convicted of the 1988 murder of a woman in a motel room in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. The victim’s death was markedly similar to the unsolved murders of 9 other women in the greater New Bedford area in 1988 and 1989.
About Mr. Tanner
Mr. Tanner spent over 34 years, nearly his entire adult life, in prison for a murder he always maintained he did not commit. Before his untimely death, Mr. Tanner was a man of deep faith and an active member of MCI Shirley’s Catholic community. He is survived by his loving sister, Cheryl.
Shawn Tanner, while released on medical parole, shortly before his untimely death in 2022.