Whitey Bulger Wants Supreme Court Review

Infamous gangster James “Whitey” Bulger has asked the Supreme Court to review his racketeering convictions for playing a role in 11 murders and a host of other crimes. The First Circuit Appeals Court in March upheld the convictions, and the three-judge panel found that Bulger had not shown that his right to a fair trial was violated when a judge barred him from testifying about a now-deceased prosecutor who he claims promised him immunity. That pretrial ruling “affected the fundamental fairness of Mr. Bulger’s trial and his convictions should be automatically reversed as a result,” Bulger’s lawyer, Hank Brennan, said. Bulger led a violent gang in Boston in the 1970s, and fled in 1994 when the FBI closed in. He remained a fugitive until 2011, when he was discovered in Santa Monica, Calif. He is now serving a life sentence.