The Joe Donovan Project

On August 7, Joseph Donovan was granted parole by the the Massachusetts Parole Board. With the step down provision stipulated, he is eligible to be released from prison in 18 months.

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Yesterday, Joseph Donovan sat before the Massachusetts parole board for 4 hours and answered questions on his crime, rehabilitation, and readiness to re-enter society. He was the first juvenile lifer to seek release from the parole board after the state’s landmark ruling in Diatchenko v. Suffolk County DA. Donovan’s hearing is a story of local, […]

Nearly 22 years after being incarcerated, Donovan will appear before the Massachusetts Parole Board sometime on May 29. This is Donovan’s first chance at being released from prison — until last November, he was still sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

In a landmark ruling released on Christmas eve, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court found that life sentences without the chance of parole are unconstitutional for juveniles. This means that Joe Donovan must be given a meaningful opportunity for parole. Coverage at CBS. Coverage at Boston Globe (subscription required)

On September 4th, The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard oral testimony from two cases that will clarify whether the Supreme Court’s Miller v. Alabama decision should be retroactively applied to all cases of juveniles sentenced to life without parole in Massachusetts. You can watch the testimony from the two cases here and here. The opinion […]