The judge who presided over the Mattapan Massacre and Patriot Aaron Hernandez’s second murder trials will today head a bureau looking into potentially wrongful convictions in Suffolk County.
Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced on Thursday that Jeffrey A. Locke, who was once the chief justice of the state Trial Court, will head the DA office’s Integrity analysis Bureau.
“Judge Locke’s impeccable record of fairness and impartiality combined with his deep knowledge of the law and trial procedures give him an ideal skill set to lead the IRB,” Hayden said in his announcement. “He has a balanced perspective that comes from many years of giving all sides equal consideration, with favor only to facts and evidence.”
The IRB is the current iteration of the office to analysis potentially wrongful convictions that began under 1990s DA Ralph Martin, became formalized as the Conviction Integrity Panel in 2004 under then-DA Dan Conley and took on its current name and structure under immediate past DA Rachael Rollins.
Locke, reporting directly to Hayden, will oversee the bureau that investigates “credible claims of innocence, wrongful conviction, and other circumstances that may have produced an improper judicial result.”
“I am honored to be entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that criminal convictions in Suffolk County have been justly obtained. I look forward to working with District Attorney Hayden and his talented team,” Locke said.
Locke was himself a DA in Norfolk County from 1997 to 1999 after eight years in the federal system as an assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, according to a state biography.
His judicial career ended with a term as chief justice of the trial court from January 19, 2022, through Dec. 21, 2023, when he had reached mandatory retirement age. He was previously the chair of the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission from 2018 to 2022, the regional administrative justice for criminal cases in Suffolk County from 2012 to 2015, and for all cases in Plymouth County from 2007 to 2011, according to a DA bio.
A highlight of his time on the bench in Suffolk County was serving as judge in the trial that convicted Dwayne Moore who slew four — including a 2-year-old boy — in what was known as “Mattapan Massacre” in September 2010.
Locke also presided over the double-murder trial of Aaron Hernandez. The killer former Patriot had already been convicted of the murder of Odin Lloyd in 2015 when Locke presided over another Hernandez trial in 2017 for the drive-by shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreau and Safiro Furtado, for which Hernandez was acquitted.
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