Overview
A veteran trial lawyer, Mr. Parker has represented hundreds of persons accused of the most serious felonies. He regularly represents persons accused of murder in the courts of the Commonwealth and in federal court. He is certified by the Committee for Public Counsel Services to accept court appointments for murder cases. When a recent federal defendant was facing murder charges that made him eligible for the death penalty, the court appointed Mr. Parker, who was able to persuade the Department of Justice not to seek the ultimate punishment.
In addition to murder
cases, Mr. Parker has extensive experience defending persons accused of
violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO)
statute, which has been used aggressively in Boston to prosecute gang violence. He also has represented numerous
persons charged with drug dealing, extortion and firearms offenses.
Mr. Parker takes an aggressive approach and always looks for legal bases to dismiss criminal charges outright, suppress evidence or statements, challenge wiretaps and exclude evidence from trial. He is a strong advocate in the court room.
Noteworthy Cases
Federal RICO/murder prosecution.
Persuaded government not
to seek death penalty.
Negotiated plea to six-year sentence.
Mr. Parker represented the lead defendant, charged as the shooter in
one murder and a participant in eight other shootings, in a federal RICO/murder
case. Mr. Parker and his
co-counsel persuaded the Department of Justice not to seek the death
penalty. Mr. Parker’s
aggressive pretrial litigation resulted in sanctions against the government for
failure to timely disclose evidence it was obligated to disclose and
suppression of several guns police had seized in violation of the Fourth
Amendment.
Jury acquittal,
first-degree murder.
Reduction to
manslaughter.
New trial ordered.
Mr. Parker represented a Harvard graduate student charged with
first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a Cambridge resident. The month-long trial generated enormous
publicity and was carried live on Court TV. The jury
acquitted of first and second-degree murder charges and convicted the defendant
of manslaughter. Mr. Parker
challenged at trial the court’s exclusion of evidence and preserved crucial
legal issues. The trial court
ultimately granted a new trial and released the defendant from his jail
sentence.
Jury acquittal, RICO and
conspiracy to murder.
Mr. Parker represented one of nine defendants in a federal RICO case
alleging a conspiracy to commit 14 murders. After a three-month trial, Mr. Parker’s client and one other
defendant were acquitted, and the jury failed to reach a verdict on the remaining
defendants. The government had
alleged that the defendants were a Mafia faction that waged a violent street
war to take out a rival faction.
Dismissal of all criminal charges, federal extortion case.
Dismissal of subsequent state charges, double jeopardy.
After several days of trial, federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss
all criminal charges against Mr. Parker’s client and all but one other
defendant in an extortion case.
The government had alleged that the defendants traveled from a Philadelphia
mosque and attempted to violently extort control of a Massachusetts mosque. After the dismissal in federal court, the defendants were charged in state
court with armed home invasion and assault and battery with dangerous weapons. Mr. Parker successfully moved to
dismiss all criminal charges in the state court on grounds of double jeopardy.
Dismissal of all criminal charges, oxycontin fraud conspiracy.
Mr. Parker persuaded federal prosecutors to dismiss all charges against his client on grounds that the prosecutors had unconstitutionally based the prosecution on the client's immunized grand jury testimony. Mr. Parker filed a so-called Kastigar motion to dismiss the indictment, to which the government capitulated without filing a response.