Non-felon status as a qualification for office

[Jonathan Entin]

I hesitate to disagree with Steve Wasby, but I don't believe that James
Michael Curley was actually incarcerated in Danbury when he won the Boston
mayoral election. I believe that Curley was under indictment at the time of
the election, was convicted soon afterward, and was later sent to Danbury
after exhausting his appeals. Curley was reelected to the Boston City
Council in 1904 while serving a sentence for taking a civil service
examination for one of his constituents.

Another Boston politico, a state representative named Charles Iannello, was
reelected in 1962 while in a state prison.

Jonathan L. Entin
Professor of Law and Political Science
Case Western Reserve University
216-368-3321 (voice)
216-368-2086 (fax)
jle at po.cwru.edu (e-mail)