Federal prosecutors said Tuesday they won't seek the death penalty against former Stoughton, Massachusetts police officer Matthew Farwell, who is charged with killing Sandra Birchmore and her unborn child.

The 23-year-old Birchmore was pregnant when she died in 2021 inside her Canton apartment. Her death was initially ruled a suicide. 

The judge in the case had set a Jan. 20, 2026 deadline for the government to decide whether it would seek the death penalty. A court filing from U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley attributed the decision to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

"The United States of America, by Leah B. Foley, United States Attorney, and Elizabeth C. Riley, Brian A. Fogerty, and Torey B. Cummings, Assistant United States Attorneys for the District of Massachusetts, advises the Court that the Attorney General of the United States has directed the government not to seek the death penalty in this case," the court filing from Foley states.

Farwell has pleaded not guilty to killing a witness or victim. Prosecutors allege that he strangled Birchmore to death inside her apartment and then staged the scene to make it look like she had died by suicide. 

A grand jury indictment alleged that Farwell had sex with Birchmore when she was 15 years old and he was 27. Birchmore was part of a youth program called the "Stoughton Police Explorers Academy," where Farwell was a volunteer. 

According to the indictment, Birchmore told Farwell that he was the father of her unborn child in December 2020. A friend of hers called Stoughton police in January and reported that Farwell had been having sex with Birchmore. 

In October, Farwell was indicted on a second count of killing a witness or victim, added under the state's protection of unborn children law. The superseding indictment revealed that she was between 8 and 10 weeks pregnant with a baby boy.

Farwell is set to face trial in a Boston federal court in October 2026.