Boston mayor apologizes to Black men wrongly accused in 1989 murder that shone spotlight on racism

By Steve Leblanc | The Associated Press Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has apologized to two Black men wrongly accused in the 1989 murder of a white woman that coarsened divisions in a city long split along racial lines and renewed anger and suspicion at police by the Black community. (Dec. 20) BOSTON (AP) — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a formal apology Wednesday to two Black men who were wrongly accused in a 1989 murder of a white woman, a case that coarsened divisions in a city long split along racial lines and renewed suspicion and anger directed at the police department by the city’s Black community. “I am so sorry for what you endured,” the mayor said during a news conference. “I am so sorry for the pain that you have carried for so many years.” Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett were wrongly named as suspects in the Oct. 23, 1989, death of Carol Stuart, whose husband, Charles Stuart, had orchestrated her killing. Stuart, who was also white, blamed his wife’s killing – and his own shooting during what he portrayed as an attempted carjacking — on an unidentified Black gunman, leading to a crackdown by police in one...