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today's column

btw I am actually up just past 6:15 am and Howie is supposed to be on Boston Herald Radio with Jeff Katz at 6:20. Will try to record the segment

Carr: Whitey Bulger saga headed to final chapter

By Howie Carr/Boston Herald 8/5/13

Jurors who heard seven weeks of evidence in the mob trial of James “Whitey” Bulger face a new endurance test today — closing arguments that could top seven hours in length, followed by what could be days of deliberations starting tomorrow as they comb through four decades of evidence of murder and extortion.

But because jurors were told they could go past Labor Day, Philip Tracy Jr., a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, said he believes they are feeling a sense of relief that the end is in sight a month early. And that, he said, could make for thoughtful, relaxed consideration of the facts.

“The jurors have to be thrilled that they’re going to be able to go home. They’ll take their time going over everything. By the end of the week they’ll be back and the verdict most likely will be guilty on all counts,” Tracy predicted.

The 32-count federal indictment, headed into the jury room, charges the former head of the Winter Hill Gang with 19 murders, racketeering conspiracy, extortion, money laundering and drug distribution — the latter, a crime his lawyers acknowledged made him a millionaire many times over. U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper has allotted assistant U.S. Attorney Fred Wyshak Jr. and the defense team of attorneys J.W. Carney Jr. and Hank Brennan three hours each for closing. Wyshak has asked for an additional 30 minutes for rebuttal. The two legal teams have been barred from commenting outside court and this will be their first opportunity to sound off on the evidence and testimony that was presented.

Tracy said Wyshak and assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly “put a tight case together and that case was that Bulger was the CEO of a criminal enterprise that killed people.” Carney and Brennan, who plan to split their presentation, are expected to attempt to embarrass the FBI, to show that Bulger was not a top-echelon informant and that among the 19 murders he’s accused of being involved in, he did not strangle his partner Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi’s girlfriend Debra Davis or Flemmi’s stepdaughter Deborah Hussey. Both women were 26.

Though Bulger, 83, chose not to testify, and will have a second opportunity to speak his mind unchallenged by cross-examination at his sentencing should he be convicted, Tracy said, “I think he got out his message already. He controlled the drama of this case to the very end.”