Edwin J. Alemany should just be happy there’s no death penalty in this benighted state, but no, he’s angry.
In an appeal of his conviction, he claimed he was defamed in court because the prosecutor was actually unkind enough to mention the nature of his fiendish crimes, which included the murder of a 24-year-old woman named Amy Lord and the attempted murder of two other women in South Boston, ages 21 and 22.
Shockingly, the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court for once did the right thing, refusing to overturn his conviction and order a new trial.
Will wonders never cease?
“The evidence of the brutal nature of the murder was overwhelming,” the court ruled Monday. “The defendant took off Lord’s clothes, beat her, stabbed her more than 40 times, strangled her and left her naked body.”
This was after Alemany kidnapped the Wilbraham native from her building in South Boston, forced her into her car and then drove to five different ATMs, forcing her to withdraw $960 cash. After stabbing and strangling her, he bought gas in Roslindale, drove back to Southie and set fire to her car.
Then the fiend went on a shopping spree. He paid off his cellphone bills, bought a new cellphone and finally got a “livery car” to take him back to Roslindale, where he got drunk with one of his buddies and passed out.
Alemany’s expert witness at trial was Dr. Keith Ablow — yes, that Keith Ablow, the one whose license to practice medicine has since been suspended.
Ablow dragged up all of Alemany’s alleged woes — booze, sexual abuse as a child by an older male, drugs starting at age 13, hit on the head with a brick, schizophrenic mother blah-blah-blah.
No doubt his client also lacked the enzyme to metabolize alcohol, like so many before him (at least in Massachusetts courts) but Ablow must have forgotten to mention it.
Bottom line: Alemany is a victim. Aren’t they all these days? Boo-hoo-hoo.
He lost this time, but he gets to keep appealing and the taxpayers get to keep picking up the tab. I know, the Sixth Amendment says everyone has right to “assistance of counsel … in all criminal prosecutions.”
But the prosecution’s over, right? Alemany is a monster. That same day, he almost killed another young woman, Kayleigh Ballantyne, stabbing her in the left arm five times, in her left breast twice, in her ribs once as well as slashing the left side of her face.
He told a third woman, who escaped, “Bitch, just know that you’re going to die today.”
Is this what James Madison envisioned when he wrote the Sixth Amendment — giving the likes of Alemany endless chances to grab a get-out-of-jail-free card?
I didn’t follow the trial that closely — his guilt was obvious — but from the SJC decision, the Suffolk County prosecutor seems to have done a great job. Needless to say, Alemany thinks he was framed.
The prosecutor called the 20-hour crime spree a “real-life horror story” and referred to Amy Lord’s “forever age” – meaning how old she was at death. Then he informed the jury that the perp was sitting a mere 10 feet away from them.
The SJC said that “is not particularly troublesome.” No kidding.
In his closing, the prosecutor mentioned Amy’s parents, Cindy and Dennis Lord and how “they were dealt the cruelest of blows …”
“Their daughter was gone, the victim of a brutal abduction, robbery and murder. No more gym, no more job, no more family trips. Amy Lord, forever 24, will never walk down the aisle with her dad on her wedding day.”
The SJC said most of that was OK but the reference to the marriage that never happened “exceeded the bounds of excusable hyperbole.”
Why? I know, the court has precedents to consider, but what the hell.
“This statement had no relevance to the defendant’s guilt and was an improper appeal to the passions or sympathies of the jury.”
Really? Isn’t it just pointing out the consequences of the unspeakable acts of such vermin?
“(The prosecutor) inappropriately appealed to the jurors’ sympathies.”
But wasn’t that the same tactic Ablow used when he was weeping the buckets about the bloodthirsty murderer’s alleged sordid childhood?
Another of Alemany’s complaints — when his lawyer asked for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, he stipulated to the jury that “I’m telling you that beyond a reasonable doubt that man is guilty of everything he’s been charged with, beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Say it one more time: “Beyond a reasonable doubt.”
You know, I thought it would be hard this year to top mobster Stevie Flemmi’s hearing before the Florida parole board. I mean, after admitting to more than 50 murders, to claim that at the age of 87 you want your freedom so you can personally express your “remorse” to his victims’ survivors — that takes chutzpah.
But this Alemany appeal comes close.
For the record, after hearing all the evidence, including Alemany’s pleas for victimhood, the jury found him guilty of these crimes, among others:
First-degree murder, kidnapping, carjacking, intimidation to steal from a depository, four counts of armed robbery, armed assault with intent to rob, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault and battery, aggravated assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, armed assault with intent to murder, and robbery.
Call your next case.