Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey’s announcement on Monday that he won’t seek reelection dramatically shifted the race’s dynamics, resetting what might have been a referendum on his handling of a pair of high-profile cases to a rare open contest that could end the long-running pattern of former Democratic state lawmakers running the office.
On Tuesday, the four Democrats who have publicly declared their candidacies to become the top prosecutor in Norfolk County each sought to cast themselves as the pick to overhaul the office.
The field is mostly political newcomers with legal backgrounds. Only one, Craig MacLellan, has won public office, having been elected to the Cohasset School Committee in 2019. The other candidates are defense attorney Jim Barakat, Adam Deitch, a former federal prosecutor, and Djuna Perkins, a former state prosecutor.
Since 1966, voters have elected four Norfolk district attorneys, all Democrats who assumed office after serving as legislators on Beacon Hill. William R. Keating, now a member of Congress, was the only one to hail from outside Quincy, the largest community in the district.
So far no elected officials from Quincy and no Republicans have declared they intend to run. The last Republican to hold the job was Jeffrey Locke, who was appointed in 1996 after William Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat, was elected to Congress.
Norfolk Treasurer Michael Bellotti, a former elected sheriff from a prominent political family, said Tuesday that the race to succeed Morrissey could mark a watershed moment for the district and test how demographic shifts are shaping its politics.
“People are going to run on change and that’s probably the right message,” he said.
Perkins, a Dedham lawyer who launched her campaign in 2024, said questions over whether Morrissey would seek reelection were a distraction.
“Now we get to focus on how to rebuild the office ... how to restore the community’s trust in the office, and make it into the best,” she said.
If Morrissey had run for a fifth term, he would have faced the toughest fight in a political career dating to 1976 when he was elected to the state House of Representatives. Since then, the Quincy Democrat has been undefeated at the ballot box, winning a state Senate seat and then Norfolk DA in 2010.
In that office, he ran unopposed for reelection three times, most recently in 2022, though his latest term was marked by public outcry over his prosecution of Karen Read and his handling of the investigation into Sandra Birchmore’s death. He didn’t respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
In Karen Read case, Norfolk DA tells conspiracy theorists ‘innuendo is not evidence’
Candidates began organizing to challenge Morrissey, 71, in 2024 amid public demonstrations over his handling of the Read and Birchmore cases.
Morrissey twice tried Read in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O’Keefe, whose body was found outside the Canton residence of a fellow officer in 2022.
Prosecutors alleged Read backed her SUV into O’Keefe in a drunken rage during a night of bar hopping.
Lights, camera, Karen: Who should star in the Read movie?
Her defense countered that Read was framed, and alleged O’Keefe was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a pet German shepherd before his body was planted outside the home. Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury. In June, she was acquitted of killing O’Keefe.
The prosecution resulted in a parallel federal investigation scrutinizing the case under the direction of Deitch. Late last year, he resigned as a federal prosecutor and moved to Quincy to enter the race.
The death of Birchmore, whose body was found in her Canton apartment on Feb. 4, 2021, was initially ruled a suicide by Morrissey and the state medical examiner’s office. No criminal charges were filed.
Read the Boston Globe's coverage of Sandra Birchmore
In 2024, the FBI arrested Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton police detective, and charged him with strangling Birchmore. Farwell has pleaded not guilty. His trial is set to begin in October.
Nomination papers for the primary ballot become available on Feb. 10. They must be signed by 1,000 registered Norfolk County voters and submitted by April 28. The contest is Sept. 1.
The Norfolk DA’s office handles criminal prosecutions in 27 cities and towns situated south and west of Boston. More than 740,000 people live in Norfolk County.
Deitch so far has established a fund-raising advantage, reporting more than $110,000 in contributions since he announced his candidacy in November.
Last week, Deitch, who specialized in public corruption cases as a federal prosecutor, announced a reform plan for the agency that includes his promise not to accept campaign contributions from employees of the DA’s office.
“My experience putting entrenched institutions under a microscope positions me to rebuild a culture in the office defined by fairness, integrity, and professionalism,” he said.
Perkins has pointed to endorsements from former state attorney general Scott Harshbarger and former Suffolk district attorney Ralph Martin II, whom she worked under as a prosecutor.
She said she would bring a unique perspective to the office that she gained from her chaotic upbringing. Perkins said her mother killed herself when she was a newborn and some family members experienced crime as victims and sometimes perpetrators.
“Because of that, I was determined to do better and to help others like me,” Perkins said. “That’s why I became a lawyer and that’s why I started working with victims of crime.”
MacLellan said he would bring his experience as a prosecutor, defense attorney, and School Committee member to the job. He said he wants to create an office that collaborates with the public and seeks community input for programming.
“If people are aware of what we’re doing and they know how to get in touch with us and express dissent, we will be more accountable to the public,” he said. “I think that accountability is certainly a way to restore the public’s confidence in our local criminal justice complex here in Norfolk County.”
Barakat, a public defender from Braintree, said he wants to restore trust in the office and would draw upon his courtroom experience “dealing with the real consequences of prosecutorial decisions.”
“I’m focused on professional prosecutions, police accountability when misconduct occurs, and a DA’s office that is fair, transparent, and effective,” he said in an email.
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