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'Unfinished justice:' Globe Spotlight team identifies men serving life sentences for murders they did not commit

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Joseph Jabir Pope is also a war veteran serving time at Norfolk Correctional Facility. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Joseph Jabir Pope is also a war veteran serving time at Norfolk Correctional Facility. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

For years in Massachusetts, one could be convicted of murder, even if they did not actually kill somebody, under the state's felony-murder rule.

The Boston Globe Spotlight team found at least 23 men — all but one Black or Hispanic — are still serving life in prison without parole because someone died during a felony they were convicted of committing.

The state's highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, overturned that common law rule in 2017, but not for them.

We speak to one of those men, Jabir Pope, and his lawyer Jeff Harris. Then, we hear more about the investigation from Meghan Irons and Mark Arsenault, of the Boston Globe's Spotlight team.

This segment aired on April 7, 2022.

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Tiziana Dearing Host, Radio Boston
Tiziana Dearing is the host of Radio Boston.

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Walter Wuthmann State Politics Reporter
Walter Wuthmann is a state politics reporter for WBUR.

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