BOSTON — Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty in the case against Matthew Farwell, a former Stoughton police officer charged in connection with the deaths of Sandra Birchmore and her unborn baby, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts announced on Tuesday.
According to a notice filed in federal court in Boston, United States Attorney General Pamela Bondi directed federal prosecutors in Massachusetts to remove capital punishment as a sentencing option for Farwell.
“The United States of America, by Leah B. Foley, United States Attorney, and Elizabeth C. Riley, Brian A. Fogerty, and Torey B. Cummings, Assistant United States Attorneys for the District of Massachusetts, advises the Court that the Attorney General of the United States has directed the government not to seek the death penalty in this case,” a court filing obtainbed by Boston 25 News stated.
Read the full ruling:
Farwell was arrested and indicted on a federal charge of killing a witness or victim in August 2024 in the 2021 death of Birchmore when she was 23. A superseding indictment filed in October revealed that Farwell has additionally been charged with violation of the protection of an unborn child.
Court documents obtained by Boston 25 News on Oct. 28, 2025, alleged Farwell “caused the death of a child in utero” on or around Feb. 1, 2021, in Canton.
Prosecutors have accused Farwell of murdering Birchmore after she informed him he was the father of her unborn child. He was also a married father of three at the time.
Farwell was one of three Stoughton officers who had an inappropriate relationship with Birchmore when she was a young teen in the Stoughton Police Department’s Explorers Program, according to investigators. It’s alleged that Farwell had engaged in sexual intercourse with Birchmore before she was 16 years of age.
Birchmore’s death was originally ruled a suicide when she was found hanging in her Canton apartment in February 2021. But last year, police announced there was evidence Sandra was killed.
Farwell is accused of staging Birchmore’s death to make it look like she had hung herself.
Boston 25 legal analyst Peter Elikann spoke Tuesday hours after the announcement.
“I think everyone is scratching their heads now about how this decision was made one way or another,” he explained. “Every time the federal government wants to seek the death penalty, it has to be made by the Attorney General of the United States.”
He continued, “The battle lines have been drawn, whether it’s a suicide or whether it’s actually a murder itself.”
Elikann told Boston 25 Tuesday that the Trump administration has sought the death penalty far more than any other in the last 50 years.
He finished, “There doesn’t seem to be quite a pattern. We can’t seem to figure out why they ask for it in certain cases and not others... It could be an aggravating factor that a police officer would kill someone in order to silence them so they couldn’t testify against them... Perhaps there is some leeway being given to him because he’s a police officer.”
Farwell has pleaded not guilty to both deaths.
The judge presiding over the case has scheduled the start of Farwell’s trial for Oct. 5, 2026.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
