Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Thursday that a 71-year-old convicted sex offender held for more than 40 years as a sexually dangerous person can be released, after two mental health professionals ruled that he was no longer a risk.
The court essentially upheld an earlier decision from 2009 in ruling that Wayne Chapman can’t continue to be held at the Massachusetts Treatment Center.
Chapman was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 1977 for the rapes of two boys, and was civilly committed to prison as a sexually dangerous person after his sentence ended in 2004.
The unanimous decision, written by Chief Justice Ralph Gants, said the state didn’t provide any evidence that the court’s ruling 10 years ago compromised public safety. In fact, the Department of Correction reported that of 49 people released from civil commitment from 2015 to 2017, only one went to prison — and not for a sexual offense.
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