Marian T. Ryan
Democratic · MA · District Attorney, Middlesex County (Northern District)
Marian T. Ryan has been the Middlesex County district attorney since 2013 and is a longtime trial and appeals prosecutor. She has started diversion programs for youth and drug cases, stopped asking for cash bail in low-level cases, and built a unit to review possible wrongful convictions.
Where Marian T. Ryan stands, based on their records
Supports
Anti-Corruption (1 record), Public Safety and Crime Control (6 records), Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties (6 records),
Track record
Track record — Anti-Corruption
Anti-Corruption · 1 support
Released the full outside review of how her office handled Jared Remy's assault case days before he killed his girlfriend. The review found prosecutors gave too little weight to his domestic violence history. She then required a supervisor or second prosecutor to approve every bail request in domestic violence cases.
May 27, 2014Supports Anti-Corruption
Source: wbur.org
Track record — Public Safety and Crime Control
Public Safety and Crime Control · 6 support
Filed a bill with state Rep. David Rogers (H.1957) to protect the ability to prosecute repeat drunk or drugged driving offenses. The bill was sent to further study in March 2026.
February 27, 2025Supports Public Safety and Crime Control
Source: malegislature.gov
Closed the case of the Cambridge police killing of Sayed Arif Faisal with no charges after a judge-led inquest found the shooting justified. In December 2018 she replaced in-house reviews of deaths caused by police with a practice of asking a judge to hold an inquest in each one.
October 6, 2023Supports Public Safety and Crime Control
Source: thesomervilletimes.com
Testified with state Sen. Ed Kennedy for a bill (S.1015) to make shooting a gun at a home a felony instead of a misdemeanor.
June 13, 2023Supports Public Safety and Crime Control
Source: senatoredkennedy.com
Created a Cold Case Unit to review every unsolved homicide in Middlesex County from the past 50 years, along with suspicious deaths and missing-person cases.
March 27, 2019Supports Public Safety and Crime Control
Source: thesomervilletimes.com
Convened the first meeting of the Eastern Middlesex Opioid Task Force with state Sen. Jason Lewis and Hallmark Health System, joining police, hospitals, and treatment providers to respond to the opioid crisis.
July 17, 2015Supports Public Safety and Crime Control
Source: patch.com
Released the full outside review of how her office handled Jared Remy's assault case days before he killed his girlfriend. The review found prosecutors gave too little weight to his domestic violence history. She then required a supervisor or second prosecutor to approve every bail request in domestic violence cases.
May 27, 2014Supports Public Safety and Crime Control
Source: wbur.org
Track record — Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties · 6 support
Asked the state's highest court in March 2021 to review all drug convictions tied to the Hinton state drug lab while two disgraced chemists worked there. In April 2021 a justice dismissed the request, saying the court does not oversee prosecutors.
April 29, 2021Supports Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Source: bostonglobe.com
Sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in federal court with Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins and nonprofit groups to stop civil immigration arrests at Massachusetts courthouses.
April 29, 2019Supports Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Source: wbur.org
Filed a friend-of-the-court letter asking the state's highest court to protect people's right to attend court without fear of civil arrest by federal immigration agents (ICE).
April 18, 2018Supports Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Source: patch.com
Told her prosecutors to stop asking for cash bail for people charged with minor nonviolent crimes, such as drug possession, shoplifting, or property damage.
January 11, 2018Supports Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Source: bostonglobe.com
Spoke at a State House rally backing the Senate's broad criminal justice reform bill, which cut mandatory minimum sentences for several drug crimes. She said she supported many of its ideas while other prosecutors opposed parts of it.
October 12, 2017Supports Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Source: bostonglobe.com
Said her office planned to retry only nine of its drug cases tainted by state chemist Annie Dookhan. The state's highest court had required prosecutors to show they could retry such cases without her evidence.
April 18, 2017Supports Criminal Justice and Civil Liberties
Source: boston.com
Track record — Civil Rights
Civil Rights · 5 support
Created the office's first director of racial justice initiatives and hired Antonia Soares Thompson for the job, to train prosecutors and police on racial bias.
March 4, 2021Supports Civil Rights
Source: wgbh.org
Launched an Anti-Hate, Anti-Bias Task Force of lawmakers, mayors, faith leaders, educators, and police after racist and antisemitic incidents in Middlesex County towns.
August 27, 2020Supports Civil Rights
Source: patch.com
Sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in federal court with Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins and nonprofit groups to stop civil immigration arrests at Massachusetts courthouses.
April 29, 2019Supports Civil Rights
Source: wbur.org
Joined state legislators as a petitioner on a Senate bill (S.24) to end child marriage in Massachusetts.
January 22, 2019Supports Civil Rights
Source: malegislature.gov
Filed a friend-of-the-court letter asking the state's highest court to protect people's right to attend court without fear of civil arrest by federal immigration agents (ICE).
April 18, 2018Supports Civil Rights
Source: patch.com
Track record — General
General · 8 records
Received the backing of Attorney General Andrea Campbell and former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis in her 2026 reelection campaign.
September 1, 2026
Source: bostonglobe.com
Ordered an outside review by retired Judge Thomas Drechsler of what her office knew about State Police Sgt. Scott Quigley's fatal 2023 crash. Released April 1, 2026, it found troopers never told her prosecutors that Quigley may have been drunk; only the office's security director had heard.
April 1, 2026
Source: bostonglobe.com
Held a press conference on the death of Hopkinton teen Mikayla Miller, laid out the timeline her office had found, and called claims of a racially motivated cover-up false.
May 4, 2021
Source: hopkintonindependent.com
Endorsed U.S. Sen. Ed Markey for reelection, praising his work on the opioid crisis.
October 29, 2019
Source: web.archive.org
Admitted her office should have given the defense sooner an eye specialist's view that the infant's injuries in the McCarthy case might have come from an immune disorder, not abuse. A judge ordered the material turned over in January 2015, 16 months after prosecutors first spoke with the specialist.
October 22, 2015
Source: irishcentral.com
Dropped the murder charge against nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy after the medical examiner changed the infant's manner of death to undetermined. McCarthy had spent more than two years in jail awaiting trial.
August 31, 2015
Source: wbur.org
Defended her decision to hold back 19 pages of the Remy case review, including the table of contents and summaries of staff interviews, from the version she released to the public. She said she did not break the public records law.
August 22, 2014
Source: boston25news.com
Was appointed Middlesex County District Attorney by Gov. Deval Patrick on April 23, 2013. She had worked as a prosecutor in that office for more than 30 years, most recently as general counsel and chief of its Elder and Disabled Unit.
April 23, 2013
Source: wbur.org
Past races Marian T. Ryan ran in:
- District Attorney, Northern District · November 3, 2026 · Middlesex County, Massachusetts · incumbent
- District Attorney, Northern District · September 1, 2026 · Middlesex County, Massachusetts · incumbent