The Hon. Howard J. Whitehead (Ret.) was an associate justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. He was appointed to the bench by former Governor Bill Weld in 1993. Whitehead retired in 2014.
He received a B.A. from Yale University. Whitehead went on to complete a J.D. at Boston University School of Law.
Prior to joining the bench, he had worked as a prosecutor for the Office of the Attorney General as well as with the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, where he was a first assistant district attorney. Whitehead also served as a supervising prosecutor with the Essex County District Attorney’s Office. One of his notable cases as a prosecutor was the trial of Jamie Fuller, who was convicted in 1992 for killing his girlfriend Amy Carnevale. The trial, which was televised, garnered national attention. Whitehead, who also taught as an adjunct professor at Boston University School of Law, would later use the case as teaching material for a course on trying cases.
Early in his legal career, Whitehead practiced briefly at the law firm Hutchins and Wheeler.
He served for many years as a legal advisor to the Lynnfield Middle School Mock Trial Team and was a mock trial judge for the Massachusetts Bar Association High School Mock Trial Competition.
In 1993, he was named Prosecutor of the Year by the group Parents of Murdered Children. Whitehead also received the Distinguished Service Award from the Lawrence Bar Association in 2014.