Once facing life in prison for murder over a ‘trivial dispute,’ Mass. man granted parole
A former Cambridge city employee sentenced to life imprisonment for fatally stabbing an unarmed man over what prosecutors called "a trivial dispute" was granted parole this week after authorities deemed he had been sufficiently reformed.
A Middlesex Superior Court jury convicted James Foley of second-degree murder in the 2008 killing of Steven Raftery in Cambridge.
After robbing a convenience store together, the pair had broken into an argument over the meager haul, according to the Massachusetts Parole Board.
While drinking and using drugs with a small group at a home in Cambridge on the night of June 26, 2008, Foley and Raftery decided to break into the nearby store. Raftery broke a window and entered the store while Foley kept lookout.
Raftery had told Foley the cash register would contain several hundred dollars. Instead, it kept only a few dollars, the parole board wrote in a report of the case.
The man began arguing over the money when they returned home. During the confrontation, Foley stabbed Raftery in the chest with a kitchen knife.
Others in the group called 911, and police arrived to find Raftery dead. Witnesses told the officers that Foley was responsible and he was later arrested.
Though given the opportunity for parole at sentencing, Foley's first request for release was denied in 2023, according to the parole board.
When he appeared again before the board this May, board members noted Foley's participation in restorative justice programming, his enrollment in a victim impact program, and his minimal disciplinary history behind bars. He also has maintained sobriety and been employed for a year in a prison industries program.
"He presented with empathy and insight," the board wrote in its decision granting Foley parole.
Before the stabbing, Foley had accumulated a dozen criminal convictions, including a 1988 count of armed robbery, a news report from his 2010 trial said, citing prosecutors. He had worked for two months in Cambridge's Department of Public Works in 2007, it said.
The parole board heard testimony from Foley's daughter and girlfriend in his support, and weighed it against opposition to granting his freedom from Raftery's sister and the Middlesex District Attorney's Office.
Foley will be released to a residential program after 90 days in a lower security facility, according to the board.
He will be subject to electronic monitoring for six months after his release. The board also required him to remain sober and undergo continued mental health counseling.
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