Dear Friends,
It is with great sadness that we share that our client Edward Knight passed away yesterday morning after a months-long battle with oropharyngeal cancer. He was 54 years old. Today would have been his 55th birthday.
Arrested at the age of 25, Eddie fought for nearly three decades to overturn his conviction for a 1996 Boston murder he did not commit. He was indisputably hundreds of miles away from the scene, in Florida, at the time forensics and many witnesses indicate the murder occurred. Eddie was nevertheless convicted and sentenced to death by incarceration in 1998 based on the heavily incentivized testimony of his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, who was also his co-defendant. Already imprisoned as a suspect in the crime, she took a deal, receiving a sentence of time served in exchange for her testimony against Eddie. Over the next several years, he appealed his conviction and filed two motions for new trial, all of which were denied. The Committee for Public Counsel Services Innocence Program and the New England Innocence Project fought alongside him for over 10 years, but his illness cut our time short.
Eddie was a dynamic personality. He made friends easily and maintained close relationships with people on the outside, despite his nearly 30 years of incarceration. He was an avid reader, writer, and movie buff. He loved to run and ran consistently when his conditions of confinement allowed. A talented artist, he liked to work in several mediums and was resourceful in collecting materials, using Band-Aids for adhesive and stray threads for tying. A 36-inch mobile, balanced with origami cranes and owls, was exhibited at the Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, VT, and now hangs permanently in the New England Innocence Project offices, where our team can enjoy it daily.
Eddie spent years fiercely advocating for his innocence, certain that the truth was on his side. A compounding series of physical traumas eventually exhausted his resilience. After surviving a violent assault that left him with a broken jaw and recovering from an emergency appendectomy, cancer was the last blow. He had already endured more than his share of suffering.
Eddie was a man of deep faith. He held his Irish Catholic identity closely. In his room at the Shattuck Hospital, where he would spend his last days, he taped a plastic rosary to the wall with a prayer. He had tried to live positively even at the end.
Eddie’s 2023 Note to Himself
My heart is heavy with Eddie's passing. It was a privilege to stand beside him in his pursuit of justice over the last many years. It is a tragedy that his life was cut short before he could see his name cleared for a crime he very clearly did not commit.
We will miss Eddie dearly and send our thoughts to his family and friends.
With gratitude,
Laura Carey
Staff Attorney, New England Innocence Project