Drug kingpin may get new trial
Appeals court orders hearing
A decade after Roxbury drug kingpin Dwayne Owens was sentenced to life in prison for murder, racketeering, and cocaine trafficking, a federal appeals court has ruled he may be entitled to a new trial based on his assertion that his family was barred from the courtroom during jury selection and that he was never told he had the right to testify at the 1997 trial.
"On balance, we find that Owens's trial may have crossed the line from imperfect to unfair," wrote the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in a 41-page decision handed down Thursday, ordering a judge to hold a hearing, where Owens may present evidence to bolster his claims.
Yesterday, Boston lawyer Peter B. Krupp , who is handling Owens' s appeal, filed a motion urging the court to expedite the hearing because Owens, 43, was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and told by doctors he may have six months to live.
Owens was convicted of running a large-scale cocaine ring from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s that was centered in Dorchester and Roxbury and netted more than $2 million.
According to Owens, neither of his trial lawyers, Robert Sheketoff and federal defender Miriam Conrad, told him during his trial that he had a right to testify, even if they advised him not to. Owens, in an affidavit, told the court he would have taken the stand and denied any involvement in killings . Jurors convicted him of conspiring to kill Rodney Belle, who was gunned down in a Mattapan park in 1989.
Owens also said the government violated his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by ordering the public, including his mother and uncle, out of the courtroom during jury selection to make room for potential jurors. Owens's relatives said they were kept out of the courtroom all day.
Conrad wouldn't comment on whether she advised Owens of his right to testify, but said she should have objected when the public was excluded from the courtroom, noting, "Obviously there are things that I messed up that I could have done, should have done differently, and Mr. Owens should not pay the price for that."
Sheketoff could not be reached yesterday, but filed a court affidavit saying he did not recall advising Owens of his right to testify.
The appeals court ruled that US District Judge William G. Young erred by rejecting Owens's petition for a new trial without holding evidentiary hearings on his claims. The appeals court also found that Young acted inappropriately when, over the defense's objections, he held a swearing-in ceremony for a new federal prosecutor in the presence of the jury. 