Richard Lapointe: Bogus Conviction or Justice Served?
In 1992 Richard Lapointe was convicted of the 1987 rape, stabbing and strangulation of Bernice Martin and sentenced to life in prison. Appeals over the years questioning his guilt, his multiple, wildly varying confessions, lack of evidence and motive, and questionable police procedures have been for naught, all rejected by the courts. After 22 years in prison and several failed appeals you would think the Friends of Richard Lapointe would have given up. But the group has pledged to continue their efforts working along with Centurian Ministries to get the conviction reversed and see Richard walk free.
Robert Perske, founder of Friends of Richard Lapointe, and George Ducharme, a member of the group since its inception, appear on Manchester Review in March to discuss Richard’s fate and their friendship with him. They share their outrage, details on the appeals and talk about what’s next. Lapointes conviction garnered tons of publicity over the years, with features by 60 Minutes, a five part series in the JI, columns by Rick Green, Tom Condon and Donald Connery, all questioning his conviction.
Approaching the case with skepticism, what I learned through my research in preparing for the show convinced me that this was a failure of justice. It’s hard to believe that he was convicted given the weak, inconsistent confessions extorted from a naive person after hours of interrogation. It’s hard to believe that the courts rejected the appeals and writs to set him free. It’s hard to believe that 22 years later former Chief Detective Joe Brooks says he never believed the confessions and regrets sending them to court for a warrant. Like the late Joe Paterno, he regrets he did not do more at the time.
Perske and Ducharme can be seen on Manchester Review at 9PM Monday nights in March on Cox PATV Channel 15
