The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld Martin Guy's first-degree conviction for a savage 1998 murder in Walpole's Bird Park.
Guy was initially identified as a suspect in the murder of an elderly woman out for a walk with her husband by a match in a federal DNA database with DNA taken from saliva on her bra and chest. He sought a new trial in part because of widely publicized, ongoing problems in the Massachusetts State Police crime lab in Sudbury - his appeal cites everything from a 2000 New Yorker article on the problems to a 2006 Department of Justice audit that showed problems with the way the lab handled DNA samples.
Ironically, those very problems led the court to reject his argument: Read more
I got the following e-mail from somebody who wanted to know if either anybody knows about the situation he describes or Walpole/Norwood forums to which he could post. If you know about either, post here or mail me and I'll forward:
I am looking at a house in Walpole that is right off Pleasant St On Pleasant St. about a quarter mile from the house is this huge plant! it used to be Bird Shingles Co., now it is Certainteed shingles? We are afraid to buy and then find out it's a cancer neighborhood. I know most towns in Mass. have some old plants that used to dump wherever they wanted but this place kind of scares me. The realtor was like "oh it's no big deal don't worry about it," we LOVE the house but we don't love cancer. Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Walpole
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