Massachusetts' highest court has overturned the murder conviction of a man accused of fatally shooting another man at a Boston barbershop in front of the victim's 4-year-old son in 2016.
William Omari Shakespeare had his conviction overturned in the June 14, 2016, shooting death of 31-year-old Marcus Hall overturned by the Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday, ordering a new trial.
Shakespeare argued during his trial that another person who was present for the shooting was responsible, but evidence of that person's testimony to a grand jury wasn't allowed to be used in court. That was a mistake, Associate Justice Elspeth Cypher wrote for the Supreme Judicial Court, and requires that Shakespeare's conviction on both murder and firearms charges be overturned.
However, the court found against Shakespeare in other arguments his team made: that a police officer's testimony shouldn't have been allowed and that his lawyer was ineffective.
The case heads back to lower court for a new trial.
Shakespeare was indicted in 2016, but wasn't arrested until late January of 2017, when he was tracked down in New York City. He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors said he was in the barbershop when Hall and his son arrived shortly before 12:20 p.m. The two men had an argument that spilled outside of the shop.
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At the time of Shakespeare's conviction, then-Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley called the shooting "a cold-blooded and vicious shooting in broad daylight, and the jury clearly saw it as such," and said justice had been done.
