How a long-forgotten Nantucket bank robbery provides modern context

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Just how much are they allowed to get away with up there on Beacon Hill?

The question has been asked and answered at countless kitchen tables, office water coolers and barrooms over the years (perhaps with more colorful language sprinkled in). But until this week, the Supreme Judicial Court had only considered the question once before -- back in 1808.

The high court's review of legislative immunity was spurred by an appeal in former senator Dean Tran's case. No, not the one in which he pleaded guilty to charges that he stole a Colt .45 gun from an elderly constituent and then misled the investigation into the incident ... and also not the one in which he was convicted of 23 felony counts including COVID and tax fraud. We're talking about the other one, the charges that Tran violated state ethics laws by using his Senate staff to conduct campaign activities.

Seeking to avoid the trial, the Fitchburg Republican argued in court that Article 21 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights gave him absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for legislative speech and debate, which he contended included directing his Senate staff as he chose.

Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian said the SJC had "no difficulty" determining that Tran's argument wasn't up to legal muster. But to get there, the court first had to go back to the last time it examined the meaning and limits of legislative privilege -- a 217-year-old case that centered around comments a state representative from Nantucket made on the House floor about an infamous bank robbery.

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"The story of the Robbery of the Nantucket Bank provides all the thrills of a modern detective novel. It contains intrigue, skulduggery, a midnight robbery, 'alarums and excursions,' and a tremendous anti-climax," Edward Stackpole wrote in The Inquirer and Mirror on Saturday, April 13, 1946. "But, being an important incident in the history of such an insular community as Nantucket, the story involves personalities who were among the important figures of their time."

One of those figures was island businessman William Coffin, who was among a handful of people implicated in the crime but not convicted. Years after the 1795 robbery, Rep. Benjamin Russell of Boston presented a resolution to the House of Representatives to have William Coffin appointed as a notary for Nantucket.

That did not sit well with Rep. Micajah Coffin of Nantucket (Wolohojian wrote that Coffin was a common name on the island at that time, connected to an important whaling family), as the judge recounts in her Tran case ruling. He approached Russell in the House Chamber and demanded to know where he had gotten his information from. When Russell pointed to William Coffin, who was sitting in the House Chamber, Micajah responded by saying, "What, that convict?"

When Russell proffered that William Coffin had been "honorably acquitted" of the Nantucket Bank robbery, Micajah Coffin retorted, "That did not make him less guilty, thee knows."

Micajah Coffin was found liable for defamation of William Coffin. The representative appealed, arguing that Article 21 protected him because his comments came in the House Chamber, to another representative and in the course of conducting House business.

When the SJC considered the matter, Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons ruled in Coffin vs. Coffin that legislative privilege extends only to legislative acts and determined that Micajah Coffin was acting more as "a private citizen to gratify his curiosity" than as a representative carrying out official duties when he bad-mouthed William Coffin to Russell.

That was that for 217 years. Until Tran's case, Wolohojian said the SJC had "not had occasion to construe or apply art. 21 since Coffin. Nor have we interpreted or applied the statements, principles, or holdings of Coffin since it was decided." 

But others have, namely the Supreme Court of the United States, which in 1880 called Coffin "perhaps, the most authoritative case in this country on the construction of the provision in regard to freedom of debate in legislative bodies, and being so early after the formation of the Constitution of the United States, is of much weight."

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Beacon Hill paused Thursday for the weighty anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 -- a day that is unforgettable for people who were old enough to understand it at the time, but not understood as much by the high schoolers (and some high school teachers) who were not even born 24 years ago.

"We will never forget. I feel that in my heart, and I know everyone here does as well. But to deliver on that promise, we have to do more than remembering. I think of our grandchildren — they will only know 9/11 if we tell them, and they will only learn the lessons if we share them," former Boston mayor Marty Walsh said after leading roundtable discussions with students.

Later in the day, Gov. Maura Healey announced that she had directed state education officials to better incorporate "9/11 and its aftermath, which is a tragic and important piece of both our state and our nation's history," into Bay State curriculum. Currently, 14 other states require students to be taught about 9/11.

This year's anniversary was colored by the Wednesday assassination of Charlie Kirk, a young conservative influencer and activist who was instrumental in President Donald Trump's election to a second term. Reflecting broadly on tensions in the country, Walsh said it's important to teach "that feeling of unity we had on 9/11, the days after 9/11 where we all respected each other across the political lines, states and neighborhoods, ages, races."

"These days, that feeling of unity can be hard to find," Walsh said. "Those feelings are needed, and it's up to us to preserve and share them. The future of our country depends on it."

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KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller's guests are Kelly Garrity of Massachusetts Politico Playbook and MASSterList’s own Gintautas Dumcius on the Boston preliminary election and the latest poll numbers for Gov. Maura Healey.

@ISSUE SIT DOWN: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard interviews Rep. Stephen Lynch, a South Boston Democrat.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. The guest is state Sen. Julian Cyr, who represents the Cape and Islands.

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