Man who once faced federal death penalty acquitted of Boston murder

By Globe Staff

A Boston man who once faced the federal death penalty for his alleged role in a 2001 Boston slaying was acquitted today in Suffolk Superior Court of first-degree murder.

Darryl Green was originally indicted along with others in federal court for racketeering in connection with the Aug. 25, 2001 shooting of Terrell Gethers, 23, during Boston’s annual Caribbean Festival.

Federal prosecutors eventually dropped their death penalty case against Green, sending it back to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office. Conley opposed the use of the death penalty by federal prosecutors.

Late this afternoon, the jury acquitted Green of first-degree murder, which carries life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

He was, however, convicted of unlawful possession of a handgun and was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Peter Lauriat to three years and one day in state prison. He has another case pending in Dedham District Court.

Suffolk prosecutors alleged that Green and others associated with the Esmond Street neighborhood in Dorchester attacked Gethers on American Legion Highway because they thought he had connections to the Franklin Hill housing development.

Prosecutors said in court that Gethers was wearing a blue Buffalo Bills jersey, not the blue New York Giants jersey historically associated with some residents of the Franklin Hill development.

Jurors were shown a secretly videotaped conversation Green had two days after the murder with an informant.

Defense attorney Randolph Gioia, in his opening statement, sought to discredit the videotape, saying it showed that Green talked about the killing, but he never incriminated himself.

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