In a recent decision, Commonwealth v. Smith, the Supreme Judicial Court extended the “interested adult” rule applies to seventeen-year-old defendants. Under the United States Constitution and the Massachusetts Declaration of rights, the police must provide a suspect with Miranda warnings prior to questioning the suspect if the suspect is (1)…
On December 24, 2014, in Diatchenko v. District Attorney for the Suffolk District I, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that all life-without-parole sentences for juvenile offenders, whether mandatory or discretionary, violate the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment under Article 26 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. This decision went…
In a criminal case, the standard of proof is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This means that the Commonwealth must prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt before a jury can convict him. At the end of a trial, before the jury makes its determination as to whether the…
In Commonwealth v. Gomes, a recent decision by the Supreme Judicial Court, the Court announced significant additions to the model jury instruction on eyewitness identification. The facts of the case are as follows: In the early morning hours of September 10, 2011, the defendant walked into a gas station convenience…
In Commonwealth v. Crayton and Commonwealth v. Collins, both issued on December 17, 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court established a new standard for the admission of in-court identifications of the defendant by eyewitnesses where the witnesses had not previously participated in an out-of-court identification procedure and/or the prior out of court…
According to an article in the MetroWest Daily News, a Framingham woman was arrested after crashing her car into an apartment building this past week. The article states that the woman was driving her car in the area of Beaver Terrace Circle. She was reportedly circling through the area repeatedly…
In its recent decision in Commonwealth v. LeClair, the Supreme Judicial Court reiterated that a witness’ ability to properly invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege does not depend on whether the prosecutor specifically intends to actually prosecute the case, rather what matters is whether the witness’ testimony could be used in a…
This past April, domestic violence legislation was proposed at the statehouse. Both the House and the Senate proposed somewhat different versions of the law, and this past week, a conference committee reconciled the two versions of the bill (SB1892 and H4037). Both the House and the Senate then passed the reconciled…
This past week, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision holding that “the police generally may not, without a warrant, search digital information on a cell phone seized from an individual who has been arrested.” The decision addressed two unrelated cases – Riley v. California and United States v.…
Twenty years ago, a young man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a crime – felony murder – that was committed when he was seventeen years old. At the time of the crime, the defendant and a friend got into a car with three…