Convicted killer Neil Entwistle seeks Supreme Court review

Neil Entwistle, now serving two life terms without parole in a Bridgewater jail, will have his case go before the high court in a conference in Washington this Friday.

He previously appealed his conviction to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. That appeal was denied in August last year.

His lawyer Stephen Paul Maidman argued that two home searches by police were carried out without warrants and that the evidence seized should have been suppressed during the trial.

He also claimed that the judge did not thoroughly scrutinise potential jurors to identify any bias against Entwistle after ‘saturating and inflammatory’ international news coverage before the case.

But Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court refused to grant Entwistle a re-trial and said he had recevied a ‘fair trial’.

In a written statement, Justice Ralph Gants said none of Entwistle’s claims on appeal warranted a reversal of his convictions.

“The interests of justice do not require the entry of a verdict of a lesser degree of guilt on the murder convictions or a new trial,” he said in August last year.

Entwistle’s wife, Rachel, and daughter, Lillian, were found shot in the master bedroom of the family home in Hopkinton on 22nd Janurary 2006.

Entwistle was charged and extradited from Britain, where he had returned on 21st January.

He was convicted in Middlesex Superior Court in 2008 on two counts of first-degree murder.