James “Whitey” Bulger’s mugshot at Alcatraz in 1959. PHOTO COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Attorneys for James “Whitey” Bulger argued Monday before a panel of judges at the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse to overturn multiple federal racketeering convictions, claiming that the government violated Bulger’s constitutional rights.

U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper prevented Bulger from testifying about the legal immunity he claims deceased federal prosecutor Jeremiah O’Sullivan gave him. Defense attorney Hank Brennan said barring Bulger from discussing relationships with government agents limited Bulger’s testimony to the point that he had to decline to take the stand.

“An accused has the fundamental right to testify,” said Brennan. “There is no shaking that right.”

After 16 years on the run from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a nine-week trial, Bulger, the infamous crime boss and leader of South Boston’s Winter Hill Gang, was found guilty of murdering 11 people in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been behind bars serving two consecutive life sentences since his conviction in 2013 and was not present at the hearing.

The defense claims that if an immunity defense were permitted, Bulger would have testified and jurors would have been able to gauge his credibility.

Brennan said the government was “underhanded” in its decision to block the immunity defense.

Assistant U.S. District Attorney Randall Kromm said Bulger “not only forfeited but waived” his right to testify, and that the immunity defense was barred because there was no supporting documentation.

“There’s nothing in the record establishing the agreement they’re claiming existed … actually existed,” Kromm said.

Tommy Donahue and Steve Davis, whose father and sister, respectively, were killed in connection with Bulger’s crime ring, sat in the first row of the courtroom during the hearing.

Bulger allegedly strangled Davis’ sister, Debra, the wife of Bulger’s close associate Stephen Flemmi, in 1984. Her death was the only murder charge the jury could not unanimously connect to Bulger, The Daily Free Press reported on Aug. 12, 2013.

After the hearing, which lasted approximately half an hour, Davis addressed the media. He likened the trial proceedings to “a bad cancer” and said he believes that Bulger was indeed granted some sort of “verbal immunity.”

Although Davis said he hopes Bulger’s appeal is accepted so that his sister’s case can be retried, he expressed reluctance to seeing Bulger brought back into the public eye.

“The only thing I want to hear from Whitey Bulger,” he said, “is the closing of his casket.”

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