Daniel F. Conley

In 1993, he left the Suffolk District Attorney's office to run for a seat on the Boston City Council. Constituents elected him to the District 5 seat, where he served for eight years and served several terms as chairman of the council's Public Safety Committee. He received the O'Riordan-Mundy Distinguished Legal Service Award in 1999 and remained on the council until he was appointed Suffolk County's 14th district attorney by Acting Governor Jane Swift on February 19, 2002. Conley won election to the office later that year.

Massachusetts is one of only four states (along with the District of Columbia) that have no continuing legal education requirement for the prosecutors. To address this Conley imposed a "continuing legal education requirement for Suffolk prosecutors, which allows them to continue honing their skills and exposes them to emerging fields of criminal law".[8]

In 2004, Conley and the then-Commissioner of the Boston Police Department empaneled a blue-ribbon task force to evaluate the ways in which police gather and prosecutors use eyewitness evidence. In an effort to ensure that the historical wrongful convictions that came to light under his leadership never reoccurred, Conley assigned his top courtroom prosecutor to join with ranking police officials, prominent defense attorneys, and the nation's leading academic expert on eyewitness identification to review the investigative processes by which eyewitness evidence was gathered and recommend changes that would minimize the likelihood of faulty identifications.[9]

The panel returned with reforms that were implemented by area law enforcement. The reforms prompted defense attorney Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project[10] to cite Boston and Suffolk County as being "at the forefront of the country" [11] in averting wrongful convictions, and eyewitness evidence expert Gary Wells to call them the "Gold Standard."[12] "The policies he implemented [...] went beyond what even the US Department of Justice had been recommending and provided a model not only for law enforcement but for the Supreme Judicial Court as well," the Boston Bar Association wrote.[13]

From left: Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino, Boston City Council member Robert Consalvo, and Conley in 2009

Shortly after taking office, Conley implemented a policy of assenting to any reasonable request for post-conviction testing of DNA evidence that was unavailable at the time of a defendant's trial. In 2011, Conley voiced his support, with additional recommendations, for legislation that would expand that voluntary policy statewide. "[T]his legislation codifies many of the practices that I voluntarily put in place six or seven years ago," Conley wrote to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. "These are good practices that serve the interest of justice."[14] In 2012, Conley formalized earlier wrongful conviction review efforts in Massachusetts first Conviction Integrity Program,[15] which provides "a roadmap" to other offices seeking to undertake similar efforts.[16]

Under Conley's stewardship, the Suffolk District Attorney's Office partnered with numerous service providers, government agencies, and victim advocacy groups to build the Family Justice Center of Boston.[17] The FJCB streamlines services for victims of child abuse, intimate partner violence, and sexual crimes by coordinating the responses of numerous agencies and providers – including police, prosecutors, social workers, and others – under one roof. The burdens on victims are reduced while efforts to hold their abusers accountable under the law are enhanced.

Also operating out of the FJCB is Support to End Exploitation Now (SEEN), a multi-agency task force directed by members of Conley's office that has twice been named one of the Top 50 Innovative Government Projects by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation.[18][19]

In 2017, Conley launched the Juvenile Alternative Resolution pilot program for "young people who faced serious charges or may have had an earlier brush with the law."[20] A year later, he expanded the program to double its capacity.

In February 2018, Conley announced that he would not be seeking reelection in the Fall. According to a statement, he intended to finish his term but was stepping aside to "give others the same opportunity" that he enjoyed as a political leader.[21] Yet with his departure occurring as lawmakers were considering an overhaul to the criminal justice system that would reduce the number of people incarcerated,[21] Conley surprised political observers on September 12, when he announced that he would be resigning, with three months left of his term, to take a job at Mintz Levin, a lobbying firm. [22] This decision arrived shortly after Greg Henning, who Conley had endorsed as the Democratic candidate for District Attorney, lost the election to Rachael Rollins. As a result, Governor Baker appointed Assistant District Attorney John Pappas as the interim Suffolk County District Attorney.[23]

Supporters campaigning for Conley's mayoral bid

In April 2013, Conley announced that he was running in the 2013 Boston mayoral election. He entered the field as the best-financed candidate at the time,[24] but only won 11.3% of the vote in the preliminary. Although losing the election, Conley remained in his position as District Attorney.