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Middlesex Prosecutors Drop 33-Year-Old Murder Charge In Cambridge Killing

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, in a 2015 file photo (Steven Senne/AP)
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. (Steven Senne/AP)

Prosectors have decided not to retry a man who spent 26 years in prison for a Cambridge murder he always maintained he had nothing to do with.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in a statement to The Boston Globe on Friday that it was virtually impossible for her office to successfully retry the case against Michael J. Sullivan given the deaths of some witnesses, and a diminishment of the memories of other potential witnesses.

Sullivan was convicted of murder in the 1987 killing of 54-year-old Wilfred McGrath in Cambridge. The victim was robbed before being left for dead behind an abandoned supermarket.

Sullivan was released in 2013 with conditions after advanced DNA testing raised questions about his guilt.

Sullivan's lawyer, Dana Curhan, says his client is relieved to be finally freed.

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