As the accused murderer adds a death penalty expert to his defense team, the federal case against a Stoughton police officer who is suspected of grooming, impregnating, and killing Sandra Birchmore of Canton has been postponed once more.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge M. Page Kelley wrote last week that the government does not oppose to the defendant’s request to extend the conference for about thirty days.
Kelley granted the request, finding that the public and defendant’s best interests for a trial within seventy days of the indictment date are outweighed by giving the parties time to prepare the matter for trial or other disposition.
In the case against Matthew Farwell, 38, of North Easton, it was the first docket entry in almost two months. Soon after, he added two lawyers to his team: Kimberly Stevens, an associate federal public defender who specializes in death sentence defenses, and Joanne Daley from the Rhode Island Federal Public Defender office.
Birchmore was groomed by Farwell when she was still a youngster, according to federal authorities. According to reports, he subsequently had sex with her, got her pregnant, and then killed the 23-year-old by strangulation in her Canton apartment on February 1, 2021, making it appear as though she had committed herself. He worked as a Stoughton police officer during that time.
On April 29, Kelley issued another order to press for in-person conferences in the case, which was the last docket update. A criminal complaint and Farwell’s arrest in August of last year marked the start of the case.
Kelley stated in April’s entry that the parties are making good progress and that the case’s discovery is extensive.
It has been a problem since at least last October, when lawyers struggled with the volume of information they needed to evaluate and postponed another court hearing.
According to a joint statement outlining the case’s position at the time, the government has produced extensive discovery that, in its opinion, goes beyond its responsibilities under local and federal regulations.
Farwell is charged with killing a witness to a federal crime—namely, having sex with Birchmore while working as a police officer—because murder is not a federal offense.
Before federal investigators took up the case, Norfolk County authorities declared Birchmore’s death to be a suicide and declined to press charges. Prosecutors may pursue the death sentence in this case even though Massachusetts is not a state that has the capital penalty.
A public defender from North Carolina who focuses in defending people facing death sentences formally entered the case Thursday in anticipation of that reality.
According to the Federal Capital Trial Project website, Kimberly Stevens is a full-time Capital Resource Counsel who advises and trains trial teams in addition to directly representing individuals charged in federal capital trials around the nation.
She has defended about 45 men and women in state and federal courts involving the death sentence, including Dylann Roof, the white supremacist who fatally shot nine people at Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015.
