MIAMI (AP) – The former chief of the Massachusetts State Police defended a plea deal Friday in which a mob hit man served only about 12 years in prison for killing 20 people.

Thomas Foley testified that the deal for confessed killer John Martorano was necessary to solve the cases and help convict law enforcement officials, such as former Boston FBI agent John Connolly, of corruption. Connolly is on trial in Miami for the 1982 murder of a gambling executive.

“If John Connolly and the FBI had done their job, we wouldn’t have been in that situation,” Foley said on the witness stand Friday. “We were in a situation where we had no choice.”

Martorano, who was released from prison last year, testified over two days this week that he was told by Boston gangster kingpin James “Whitey” Bulger that Connolly provided key information leading to the killing of former World Jai-Alai president John Callahan. Martorano said he actually shot Callahan to cover up another murder.

Connolly, 68, faces life in prison if convicted of murder and conspiracy in Callahan’s death. He is already serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for a racketeering conviction involving his protection of Bulger’s violent Winter Hill Gang.

Bulger, 79, is a fugitive on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list, but next week testimony is expected from another Winter Hill leader: Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi, 74, who is serving a life prison sentence for 10 murders. Bulger and Flemmi were secretly FBI informants handled by Connolly.

Prosecutors on Friday withdrew a request that news media take no pictures or video of Flemmi, who is in the witness security program of the federal prison system.