Legacy Matters

"The money didn't help"

He had spent more than 6 years in jail after being convicted of shooting a Boston police officer when DNA evidence freed him.  Awarded a total of $3.7 million for his wrongful conviction, Stephan Cowans was
the happiest man in the world," said his grandmother, Laura Lenard, who spent her savings trying to free him from prison. "But it didn't stay that way, and the money didn't help."

A year later he was shot to death in his new home in Randolph
which he bought several months before in an effort to escape the increasingly consuming fear he felt in Boston. Authorities have yet to find the killer.

Relatives, friends, and lawyers who represented Cowans say the money took a toll, and some blame his sudden wealth for his death.

Near the end of his life, Cowans was telling them he wished he never received the money.

A future reclaimed, a windfall, a life lost.