Stephan Cowans

The Crime

On May 30, 1997, in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Boston Police Sergeant Gregory Gallagher was shot twice with his own gun during a struggle with a Black man. The gunman also fired a shot at a neighborhood resident, Benjamin Pitre, but missed. As the man fled, the baseball cap he was wearing fell off.

Still holding Sergeant Gallagher’s gun, the man forced his way into the nearby home of Bonnie Lacy. She asked him to put down the gun, and he complied. He then asked for water, which she gave him in a mug. He took off the sweatshirt he was wearing and drank the water before he fled, leaving the gun, the sweatshirt, and the mug behind.

The Investigation

Several days later, from an array of eight photographs, Sergeant Gallagher, who was white, identified his assailant as 27-year-old Stephan Cowans, who had a record of burglary and petty theft. 

Mr. Pitre and Ms. Lacy, who also were white, were shown the same photographic lineup, but made no identification. 

On July 12, 1997, Mr. Cowans was put into a live lineup. Both Sergeant Gallagher and Mr. Pitre identified him as the assailant. Ms. Lacy also viewed the lineup but made no identification. 

On July 13, 1997, Mr. Cowans was charged with intent to murder, home invasion, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

A thumbprint on the water mug from Ms. Lacy’s home was run through the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), which included Mr. Cowans’s fingerprints, but a match was not identified. 

The Trial

Mr. Cowans went to trial in June 1998, in Suffolk County Superior Court. 

Boston Police Department fingerprint analysts Dennis LeBlanc and Rosemary McLaughlin testified that they had identified the thumbprint as belonging to Mr. Cowans. Sergeant Gallagher and Mr. Pitre both testified and identified Mr. Cowans as the gunman.

On June 30, 1998, the jury convicted Mr. Cowans on all charges, and he was sentenced to 35 to 50 years in prison. The Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed the conviction and sentence on Oct. 12, 2001, but vacated the conviction for home invasion.

The Exoneration

In the hope that DNA testing could exonerate him, Mr. Cowans turned to the New England Innocence Project. One of the organization’s founders, Robert N. Feldman, of the Boston law firm Birnbaum & Godkin, agreed to represent Mr. Cowans. On May 22, 2003, Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Lauriat approved Mr. Feldman’s request to have the baseball cap, sweatshirt, and mug submitted for DNA testing.

In January 2004, the tests, which were performed by Orchid Cellmark, established that the DNA on all three items came from one person, and that person was not Mr. Cowans. 

On Jan. 21, Judge Lauriat granted Mr. Cowans a new trial based on the DNA results and set bail at $7,500, which supporters of Mr. Cowans posted. He was released.

At first, Suffolk County District Attorney David E. Meier vowed to retry Mr. Cowans, relying on the purported thumbprint match. Two days later, however, Mr. Meier told Judge Lauriat, “I can conclusively and unequivocally state, your honor, that that purported [thumbprint] match was a mistake.” 

At a hearing on Feb. 2, 2004, Mr. Meier dismissed the charges, acknowledging that Mr. Cowans was innocent.

Officers LeBlanc and McLaughlin were placed on administrative leave and, after an internal investigation, the Boston Police Department Latent Fingerprint Unit was temporarily shut down. Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly launched a grand jury investigation into the analysts, but later announced that no charges would be brought against Officers LeBlanc and McLaughlin, who had since retired.

Mr. Cowans brought a federal civil rights suit against the city of Boston, which settled the case for $3,200,000 in August 2006. He also received $500,000 in compensation from the state. 

On Oct. 25, 2007, he was found murdered in his home. The crime was never solved.