The nephew of Willie Bennett, who was falsely accused for the murder of Carol Stuart in 1989, has sued Massachusetts for compensation for his own wrongful conviction and has retained nationally prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump to represent him.

“Joseph Bennett lost decades of his life because the system got it wrong, and no amount of money can ever give him those years back,” attorney Ben Crump wrote in a statement.

“What we can do is demand accountability and fight for meaningful justice that recognizes the full human cost of wrongful incarceration. Joseph has rebuilt and turned his pain into purpose. Now we will pursue every remedy available to help make him whole.”

Joseph “Joey” Bennett was charged twice for murder: The first time was in 1993 for the Morning Star Baptist Church stabbing in Mattapan, a charge which prosecutors would drop that same year.

The second was in 1997 for the shooting murder of Jasper Gillard in the Rolls Club of Mattapan. This charge stuck: he was convicted of second-degree murder and spent 22 years in prison before he was granted a retrial and released in 2019.

The Suffolk District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute in the second trial. In a court filing, a prosecutor wrote that after a review of the state of the evidence following nearly 27 years, “the Commonwealth has concluded that it cannot prove the murder charge again beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Since his release from prison, Bennett went on to found YardTime, a Boston organization that Crump describes as one “that supports returning citizens and works to break cycles of incarceration in Boston.”

Bennett writes in his YardTime biography that he “has made a commitment to building partnerships and improving the quality of life for inner-city African American youth and men of color in Boston.”

Crump says that Bennett should be compensated for wrongful incarceration from about 2016 until his release on April 30, 2019.

Bennett was present when in December 2023 Boston Mayor Michelle Wu formally apologized on behalf of the city to two black men wrongfully arrested and accused in the Oct. 23, 1989, shooting murder of a pregnant Carol Stuart. Those men were Alan Swanson, who appeared at the event himself, and Willie Bennett, who was represented by his family members including Joseph Bennett.

Carol Stuart’s murder grabbed headlines in 1989 based on the dramatic allegations of Charles Stuart. He told police that a black gunman invaded their car in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood and shot both him and his pregnant wife.

This was a lie that led to police fingering both Swanson and Willie Bennett as the perpetrators before the truth came out: Charles Stuart himself had fatally shot his wife and then shot himself as a cover story.

Joseph Bennett accepted Wu’s apology on behalf of his uncle.

“We are truly humbled to finally be receiving this apology,” he said.

“I want to emphasize the importance of strength, resiliency, empathy, and growth as it’s through these principles that we change the narrative so the world can be informed of what transpired 34 years ago and begin the process of healing from our trauma,” he added.

Attorney Ben Crump speaks during a news conference earlier this year. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, file)