2 Black men wrongly accused in 1989 killing of white woman in Boston get $150K from city

BOSTON, Mass. — Two Black men wrongly accused of killing a pregnant white woman in a high-profile case in Boston in 1989 have received a $150,000 settlement from the city, two years after the mayor issued a formal apology.

Alan Swanson and Willie Bennett were wrongly named as suspects in the death of Carol Stuart, whose husband said they had been shot during an attempted carjacking by a Black gunman.

Bennett will receive $100,000 from the settlement and Swanson $50,000, city officials said Tuesday.

Charles Stuart had instead orchestrated the killing of his wife, Carol Stuart, as they left a birthing class. She was shot in the head, and died the next day, while their baby, delivered by cesarean section, 17 days later.

Charles Stuart, who was also white, was shot in the chest but survived. He died after jumping off a bridge a few months later, as his story fell apart.

In the interim, the case sparked a crackdown by police in a traditionally Black neighborhood, heightening racial tensions in the city.

Police first arrested Swanson before ruling him out, and then took Bennett into custody. Stuart later identified Bennett as the suspect but neither man was ever formally charged in the case.

Mayor Michelle Wu apologized in 2023 for both the pain the men endured and the harm it caused the Black community.

“What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist and wrong,” she said.