HOME / ENTERTAINMENT / TV

'Trial 4': Who is Ralph Martin? Boston's first Black district attorney was appointed to mixed reactions

On his appointment, Martin switched from independent to Republican, and so becoming the first Republican to hold the job in a Democratic stronghold

Netflix's new limited docuseries 'Trial 4' focuses on the story of a man who says he was wrongly convicted of murdering a police officer when he was just 19 years old. The eight-part docuseries will feature Sean Ellis as he faces his fourth trial — 25 years after he was first tried in 1995 — as he may end up going back to prison. Ellis had been previously sentenced to life and was released when new evidence came to light. 

Ellis had spent 22 years in prison after being convicted of the 1993 murder of Boston police detective, John Mulligan. He was put on trial three times within a year, and now faces his fourth trial – which could see him back in prison for life. After his first three trials for armed robbery and first-degree murder, Ellis, aged 19 at the time, was found guilty in 1995 and sentenced to life.

His first two trials resulted in a hung jury. In 2015, Ellis was freed from jail on bail, after a judge ordered a new trial saying evidence about how the case had been handled had been withheld from the defense. In the docuseries, there are a few key people we meet through the docuseries, many of them who played a big part in Boston's politics in the late 1980s and the early 1990s.

At the time, racial tension was high in Boston, especially after the Chuck Stuart mess — Stuart was an American suspect in a 1989 Boston murder and falsely alleged that his pregnant wife Carol was shot and killed by an African-American assailant, which the Boston Police Department pursued. In light of the racial tension, Suffolk County's (which includes Boston) first Black district attorney, Ralph C Martin II, was appointed after Newman Flanagan stepped down.

Flanagan had received a lot of criticism for letting the Boston Police Department run with no control, with the police being embroiled in claims of corruption. At the time of his resignation, Flanagan had received flak for his handling of the Chuck Stuart case.

On his appointment, Martin switched from independent to Republican, and so becoming the first Republican to hold the job in memory in a Democratic stronghold and the only official to represent his party in the county. He won the election to the office in 1994 by a margin of almost 20 percent and ran unopposed in 1998. He was recognized for his leadership by former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Janet Reno.

However, Martin was met with mixed reactions when he was first appointed. The former assistant United States attorney's appointment was welcomed as a person of color in the office, however, it was not without caution.

State Representative Byron Rushing, a Democrat, said at the time to The New York Times, "While we get a qualified District Attorney for two years, this is clearly a sop to the black community." According to The New York Times, the then Massachusetts Governor, William F Weld became convinced to appoint Martin in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots.

In 2011, Ralph C. Martin II was named Northeastern University’s senior vice president and general counsel. Martin had served as the District Attorney for nearly 10 years before becoming the managing partner of the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen LLP, where he was the chair of the firm's Diversity Task Force.

'Trial 4' is now streaming on Netflix.