By Deborah Feyerick and Kristina Sgueglia, CNN
Boston (CNN) — After almost a month of colorful witnesses and rancorous testimony, the jury begins deliberations Tuesday in the trial of alleged crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger.
As he addressed the jury in his closing arguments Monday, prosecuting attorney Fred Wyshak called Bulger one of the most “vicious, violent and calculating criminals to ever walk the streets of Boston.”
Bulger is accused of 19 killings and 13 counts of extortion and money laundering during a 20-year “reign of terror” that defined South Boston from the early ’70s through 1995, when Bulger fled Boston.
The prosecution took close to three and a half hours for its closing. The defense took over two and a half hours to make its case, then the prosecution had the final word in a rebuttal.
Defense attorney J.W. Carney summed up his case by questioning the credibility of prosecution witnesses, some of whom came to court with extensive criminal resumes and who had worked out deals with the government in exchange for testifying against Bulger.
“If you cannot say in your deliberation that I personally can believe (prosecution witnesses) beyond a reasonable doubt, then the government cannot prove its case about the alleged murders,” Carney told the jury.
More: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/06/justice/whitey-bulger-trial/index.html?hpt=hp_t2