Edward Francis Hennessey (April 20, 1919 – March 8, 2007)[1] was the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1976 to 1989.
He served in the United States Army during World War II (in the Mediterranean theater) and was a captain, receiving a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
A shortage of lawyers prompted the Army to assign some who had not attended law school to prosecute and defend soldiers during court martial proceedings.
During the 1950s and early 1960s, he practiced civil and criminal law and was an assistant Middlesex district attorney.
He wrote prolifically; one of his more notable opinions came with the court's 1980 ruling that the state's death penalty, signed into law less than a year earlier, was unconstitutional because it was "unacceptable under contemporary standards in its unique and inherent capacity to inflict pain" and that it discriminated against minorities, "particularly blacks."