BOSTON, April 22, 2014—Massachusetts’ 11 district attorneys last week honored a longtime member of Suffolk DA Dan Conley’s office with a statewide award for her dedicated service to crime victims, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced.
Roslindale native Katherine Moran, an 11-year veteran of the office now assigned to the DA’s Homicide Unit, received the Gerard D. Downing Advocate of the Year Award at the 20th annual Massachusetts Prosecutors Conference. The event was held Thursday at the Seaport Hotel.
“Survivors of homicide across Suffolk County have come to know Katherine as a guiding light through one of the most harrowing ordeals any family could experience – the loss of a loved one to violence,” Conley said. “Regardless of whether the case is solved or unsolved, these families know that they can rely on Katherine to keep them informed at every step and to help them navigate the often intimidating criminal justice system with grace and compassion.”
Moran joined the Suffolk DA’s office in 2003, serving first in Dorchester District Court, one of New England’s busiest courthouses. She was promoted in 2006 to the Elders and Persons with Disabilities Unit, and took on her current assignment in the Homicide Unit in 2010. Since that time, Moran has worked on more than two dozen homicide trials and on many more cases that are still pending. But her work isn’t limited to the courtroom – Moran has helped organize holiday toy drives to benefit families in the aftermath of violent crime and an annual meet-and-greet breakfast for the survivor community.
Conley noted that this year marks the 30th anniversary of both the federal Victims of Crime Act and the Massachusetts Victim Bill of Rights.
“Decades ago, victims did not have a voice in the criminal justice system,” he said. “Too often, they were the forgotten party in a criminal case. The push to ensure the rights of victims, which led to these two pieces of landmark legislation, has given them not only the voice they deserve but also the individual attention they need. I am deeply grateful for the work that Katherine and her colleagues perform on behalf of victims, their families, and their communities each day.”
Moran is one of roughly 30 victim-witness advocates employed by Conley’s office. They provide specialized assistance, support, referrals, and information to victims, witnesses, and families involved in criminal cases. Advocates are assigned to the nine district courts in Suffolk County and to most Superior Court trial teams.
Gerard D. Downing was the Berkshire County district attorney and an impassioned voice for victim’s rights from 1991 until his untimely death in 2003. After his death, the state’s DAs created an award in his name and present it each year to a victim-witness advocate whose work carries on his example. Moran is the second Suffolk VWA to earn the award in his name: in 2010, it was presented to Michael Coffey, also a veteran of the Homicide Unit and the county’s fast-paced district courts.
“If prosecution is the backbone of our work, victim advocacy is the heart,” Conley said. “This is the very nature of what we do.”
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
