After Attorney Wood’s decade-long fight to exonerate Nat Cosenza, a Worcester federal court jury returned an $8 million verdict for our client on September 30, 2022.

The evidence never pointed towards Nat as the assailant. DNA evidence at the scene clearly did not belong to Nat. So rather than admit that this was a misidentification, police rigged the photo lineup and lied about the chain of custody of the shorts. To make matters worse, the trial judge excluded a nationally known expert’s testimony about faulty eyewitness identification. As a result, the jury convicted.

Attorney Wood never gave up on Nat, fighting for him for well over a decade. Assisted by Attorney Malm, he eventually convinced a Superior Court judge that Nat’s case had been a miscarriage of justice. The CPCS Innocence Program and the New England Innocence Project provided crucial assistance along the way.

After Nat’s exoneration, Attorney Wood joined efforts with the nationally prominent civil rights firm Loevy & Loevy. The civil rights suit on behalf of Nat, which was filed in 2018, was tried to a jury in Worcester federal court. That jury found that “Detective Hazelhurst’s fabrication of evidence caused Plaintiff Cosenza to be wrongfully convicted.”

When we take on a client, we see the case through. Our defense never rests.