Prosecutor who tried Brian Walshe for murder enters Norfolk DA race

Politics

“I think that I have a tremendous amount more of experience of knowing Norfolk County — the communities, the law enforcement partners, the people here, and its issues.”

By Abby Patkin

February 9, 2026 | 1:06 PM

4 minutes to read

Fresh off winning a guilty verdict in the Brian Walshe murder case, the longtime chief trial counsel for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office has entered the race for the top job. 

Greg Connor filed paperwork with the state last week to establish his campaign committee, joining the crowded field of Democrats vying to replace Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey. 

“I think that I have a tremendous amount more of experience of knowing Norfolk County — the communities, the law enforcement partners, the people here, and its issues,” Connor told Boston.com. “I just know this system and the players in it, and also the goals in it, better than, I think, anyone else in the field.”

His entry into the race comes just weeks after Morrissey announced he will not seek reelection to the office he’s held since 2010. 

Aside from a brief stint in Boston during his college years, Connor has spent his entire life in Norfolk County, where his family’s roots go back generations. The Milton Democrat has spent 25 years in the DA’s office, where he’s worked under three different district attorneys. 

“It seemed to me that this was the evolution or the culmination of this career, … to run for district attorney,” he explained. 

Connor said he made a point of listening to the other candidates speak about their plans for the office, but he “recognized after that that no one had the experience needed to do the job.”

“I think I’m the only one who’s ever tried a case in Norfolk County,” he added, pointing to high-profile prosecutions in the Walshe, “Puppy Doe,” and Emanuel Lopes cases. 

Still, Connor said his decision to run was a difficult one made after consulting with his family. He’ll be stepping down as a prosecutor March 6 to become a full-time candidate, shortly after marking his 25th anniversary with the DA’s office. 

“To leave the people that I’ve worked with for 25 years and the job that I’ve loved for 25 years is a tough decision, but I think it’s the right one to do this the right way,” he explained. 

Connor said he plans to speak with some families involved in his pending cases, to ensure they’re not left in the lurch when he resigns. He expects a more formal announcement of his candidacy will follow in the coming weeks. 

The 2026 election comes during a period of heightened scrutiny for the Norfolk DA’s office, which came under fire for its handling of the high-profile Karen Read and Sandra Birchmore cases. 

Read, 45, was acquitted last June of murder and manslaughter charges after prosecutors accused her of drunkenly backing her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, on a snowy night in Canton in 2022. She and her attorneys have long maintained she was framed in a law enforcement conspiracy.

Connor pointed out he wasn’t involved in Read’s case or the investigation into the death of Birchmore, a 23-year-old pregnant woman found dead in her Canton apartment in 2021. State investigators initially ruled her death a suicide, but federal prosecutors later accused a former Stoughton police detective of killing the young woman and staging the scene to look like she killed herself. 

Looking at Read’s case, Connor said, “I saw what was being litigated was whether or not the [SUV] hit John, not the intent of how it hit John. And to me, it seemed like it was overcharged, and it was a motor vehicle homicide case, not a murder case. So I had some issues with how that case was handled as well.”

As for Birchmore, Connor suggested the DA’s office should have opted for a judicial inquest to better explore the circumstances of her death. 

“I understand there are differences in opinion on how to do things, and I think that when you have two credible causes of death like that, that was something that we could have done, and we could have done it better,” he explained. “However, you know, once the U.S. Attorney’s Office got involved, you don’t want to interfere with a case like that. You want them to be able to do their investigation.” 

Connor is up against four others in the race for Morrissey’s seat: public defense attorney Jim Barakat; former Suffolk County prosecutors Djuna Perkins and Craig MacLellan; and former federal prosecutor Adam Deitch, who investigated Norfolk County authorities over their handling of Read’s case. 

MacLellan did not immediately return a request for comment. Barakat said Friday he is “looking forward to productive discussions about how we make Norfolk County’s justice system more fair, more equitable, and more accountable for everyone!”

Perkins likewise expressed an interest in hearing how Connor “plans to bring meaningful reform to the office he helped run.”

“What the Norfolk County DA’s office needs is systemic reform — not more of the same,” she added. 

Deitch offered a similar take: “While I respect anyone who decides to run for office in today’s political environment, Norfolk County deserves real change in the DA’s Office, not a promotion for Michael Morrissey’s right-hand man.”

But Connor insisted he wants to bring his own platform to the DA’s office, rather than taking up Morrissey’s mantle. 

“I think whoever wins the race is going to rebuild the office in the way they want to. I think that there are some fantastic building blocks there, and I would want to build off of those,” he explained. “But no, I want it to be an office that I think will be able to get justice for everyone. Not that [Morrissey] didn’t, but I want to bring my vision to it, not Michael’s.”

After working under three different DAs and seeing how they approached the job, Connor said he hopes to borrow from their successful strategies and infuse his own ideas into the day-to-day work. 

“What I want to do is build off the successes I’ve had in the office, in the different divisions I’ve worked in, and institute that to make a professional office that’s devoted to victims,” he said.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.