The state’s highest court upheld the conviction of the murderer who committed one of Jamaica Plain’s most infamous crimes in a Jan. 20 decision.
Edward Corliss, now 68, robbed the Tedeschi convenience store in Monument Square on the day after Christmas in 2009. After clerk Surendra Dangol handed over the cash, Corliss shot him to death for no apparent reason.
Corliss was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. He appealed the conviction on a variety of grounds, including his inability to fully attend a jury visit to the store, and the police disposing of the robbery money before every bill could be tested for DNA or fingerprints.
In its Jan. 20 decision, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Corliss had no grounds for any relief and affirmed his conviction.
“This was the right decision,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley in a press release. “The defendant got a fair trial based on the facts, the evidence and the law. That’s more than Surendra Dangol got before he was murdered in cold blood.”
At the time of the murder, Corliss was on parole for committing a very similar killing of a store clerk in Salisbury in 1971. While awaiting trial for the JP murder, prosecutors alleged, Corliss plotted to kill his wife and other witnesses and stage an escape, though all such charges were later dismissed.
Murderer Edward Corliss as seen in his driver’s license photo. (Photo Courtesy Suffolk County DA’s Office)