A Boston man who spent nearly 50 years in prison is suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, seeking at least $1 million after his 1976 murder conviction was vacated and prosecutors later dropped the case. The complaint says that those decades behind bars cost him time with his children, a shot at steady work and what he views as any real access to justice. Raymond Gaines, now 72, is asking the state to pay for what his lawyers describe as "severe mental anguish, emotional distress and loss of income."
Lawsuit Lands In Suffolk Superior Court
Filed this week in Suffolk Superior Court, the lawsuit claims that recantation affidavits and internal Boston Police records uncovered through a 2018 public-records request were never provided to the defense, according to MassLive. The complaint names the state and argues that the missing material would have undercut the prosecution's case and denied Gaines a fair trial. His attorneys say the filing is about compensation for nearly half a century of lost earnings, family separation and lasting psychological harm.
Case History
Gaines was convicted in 1976 of the fatal shooting of Peter Sulfaro at his shoe repair shop in what was then Dudley Square, now known as Nubian Square. From the start, Gaines maintained that on Dec. 10, 1974, he was actually in Waterloo, Iowa, and he pointed to medical records showing he had been shot in the legs days earlier, facts detailed by The Boston Globe. Defense lawyers later obtained affidavits from witnesses who recanted their trial testimony, and those reversals became central to the long post-conviction fight.
Judicial Turnaround And Dismissal
A Suffolk Superior Court judge granted Gaines a new-trial motion in late 2022, and the state's highest court upheld that ruling in 2024. Prosecutors then dismissed the case in October 2025, according to the National Registry of Exonerations. Local coverage reported that the Suffolk County district attorney's office said it still believed Gaines had some involvement in the crime but could not meet the heightened legal standard required for a retrial, a point cited in paperwork declining to try the case again at the time, per WCVB. Those decisions collectively ended the prosecution and left Gaines a free man.
Policy Backdrop And Compensation Cap
Gaines is now going after the maximum allowed under Massachusetts law: a $1 million cap on wrongful-conviction compensation that exonerees and advocates have long argued is far too low. For years, reformers and some lawmakers have pushed legislation to raise the cap and create an administrative claims process to speed payments and provide immediate services for people cleared of crimes, according to reporting by WBUR. Previous wrongful-conviction payouts in the state have frequently hit that ceiling, which has only fueled the call for change.
What Happens Next
The case is now pending in Suffolk Superior Court. A spokesman for the Boston Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and court filings will spell out how the Commonwealth plans to answer the allegations, MassLive reports. Legal observers say lawsuits like this often lead to either lengthy litigation or settlement talks, and they tend to revive public scrutiny of police disclosure practices and of how the state treats people who say they were wrongfully convicted.
