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In for Life is Elaine Alice Murphy’s personal account of her 20-year quest to achieve justice for Sean K. Ellis, a Black man who was her son’s childhood friend. Ellis was wrongly convicted in 1995 (at his third trial) for the murder of Boston detective John J. Mulligan and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

He was nineteen at the time of his arrest.

Findings of police and prosecutorial misconduct in the case made by Murphy and Ellis’ attorneys saw Ellis released in 2015, after he’d given up nearly 23 years in prison – the prime years of his life. All charges against him were ultimately dropped, and in 2021 he was awarded $16 million compensation by the City of Boston.

The Sean Ellis case was the subject of Netflix’s acclaimed eight-part docuseries, Trial 4, in which Murphy appears. But Murphy’s book goes far deeper behind the scenes, recounting her regular prison visits with Sean and highlights of their correspondence over two decades. The bond they developed was like no other – and became life-changing for both.