Boston’s Police Chief Plans to Step Aside

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/us/bostons-police-chief-plans-to-step-aside.html

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BOSTON — Edward Davis, the Boston police commissioner who rose to national prominence after the marathon bombings in April, said Monday that he was stepping down from his job in the next month or two.

The announcement touched off speculation that he might be in line for a higher post, perhaps at the Department of Homeland Security, which has been without a leader since Secretary Janet Napolitano left earlier this month.

But Mr. Davis, 57, told a packed news conference at police headquarters here that he was leaving simply because “it’s time to go.” He said that he would not engage in speculation about his future but that he had received “several offers” and it would take him a couple of months to sort them out. He has also been offered a fellowship at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and hopes to accept it.

Mr. Davis said his seven years as commissioner was twice the typical tenure of urban police commissioners. He also said he wanted to “clear the deck for the new administration.” The city is preparing to elect a replacement for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who appointed Mr. Davis in 2006 and is stepping aside early next year after 20 years as mayor.

The commissioner’s tenure has been an issue in the mayor’s race, with several of the dozen candidates saying he has not placed enough minority officers or women in the top ranks of the department. He defended his record Monday, saying 42 percent of his command staff were “people of color and diversity,” but he also said he had been hamstrung by certain court rulings. He urged the next mayor to “keep diversity high on the list of priorities” and “make sure this police department is reflective of the community it serves.”

Mr. Davis drew wide praise for his role in the police response to the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260 on April 15.

His announcement on Monday came on the same day that lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, appeared in court to try to prevent their client from facing the death penalty.

Mr. Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty in July to a sweeping federal terrorism indictment; 17 of its 30 charges could mean life in prison or the death penalty if he is convicted.

During a status conference on Monday, which he did not attend, his lawyers, who include the death penalty experts Miriam Conrad and Judy Clarke, asked Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. of Federal District Court for more time to make a case that the government should not seek the death penalty. Ms. Conrad said prosecutors had yet to give her team grand jury testimony that she said could be “exculpatory.”

William Weinreb, an assistant United States attorney, said prosecutors planned to submit their recommendation on whether to seek the death penalty to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Oct. 31, which is also expected to include the mitigating arguments from Mr. Tsarnaev’s defense team. Mr. Holder will then have 90 days to make a final recommendation. A trial could begin early next year.

Ms. Clarke said it was too early to say whether her team would seek a change of venue for the trial; so far, proceedings have taken place in Boston’s federal courthouse, less than two miles from the marathon finish line, where the bombs exploded.