Boston quietly approved a settlement of $12 million for Shaun Jenkins, the man who spent nearly 19 years in prison for a murder he said he did not commit. The payment was agreed to in October 2024, after a judge had already thrown out Jenkins’s conviction because of police and prosecutorial misconduct. The case centers on revelations that detectives paid at least one key witness and prosecutors buried evidence that could have pointed to another suspect.
Settlement details emerge
The city’s settlement was not publicly announced at the time and has not previously been reported. Jenkins filed a federal lawsuit against the city and several Boston police detectives in 2023, and the agreement was later reached in October 2024, a copy of the settlement obtained through a public records request.
The underlying case has become one more example of how misconduct findings can reshape long-running wrongful conviction claims. In Jenkins’s case, the judge’s decision to vacate the conviction came after documents surfaced showing the detectives had paid at least one witness and that prosecutors had withheld evidence that could have implicated another suspect.
Immediate reaction to the settlement
“Shaun Jenkins spent nearly two decades imprisoned for a crime he did not commit because of extraordinary misconduct by the BPD, ” said Nick Brustin and Katie McCarthy, attorneys for Jenkins, Thursday. “The City’s settlement demonstrates it knew it faced much greater liability if the case went to trial. ”
Joshua Dankoff, a member of the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency’s civilian review board, said, “It’s a terrible miscarriage of justice, and I hope a settlement like this can feel like some level of fairness or making whole for Mr. Jenkins and his family. ”
Howard Friedman, a Boston attorney who has handled police misconduct cases for decades, said such cases can lead to very large payouts and can push cities to resolve disputes before trial. He said settlements can also offer finality for people who have already spent years behind bars.
How the settlement fits Boston’s pattern
The Jenkins settlement lands in the middle of a broader pattern of major payouts tied to Boston police misconduct. In 2023, the city had quietly reached a $16 million settlement with Sean Ellis, whose murder conviction was later overturned after he served 22 years in prison. That same year, Boston paid $4 million to James Watson, who spent more than 40 years in prison after a wrongful conviction in a Boston cab driver’s killing. Frederick Clay, convicted in the same case, received $3. 1 million in 2020.
A review of city legal payments found that of $39 million paid in 970 legal settlements from 2020 to 2022, most of the money involved police. The Jenkins case now adds another large chapter to that record.
What happens next
No public comment came from the Boston Police Department, and Mayor Michelle Wu’s office declined to comment. For Jenkins, the case now shifts from courtroom fight to the aftermath of compensation, even though no amount can restore the years lost. The settlement closes one legal chapter, but it also leaves Boston facing continued scrutiny over how misconduct cases are handled and how long their consequences can last.
