In Commonwealth v. Fielding, the Appeals Court affirmed the defendant’s conviction of open and gross lewdness. In its decision, the Court ruled that the judge properly declined to suppress: (1) the victim’s identification of a Facebook photo as depicting the man who had masturbated in front of her the day…
In Commonwealth v. Vines, a case of first impression, the Appeals Court dismissed the defendant’s appeal from the denial of his post-conviction motion for information about the jurors who deliberated at his trial on the grounds that such a motion “is in the nature of a request for post-conviction discovery…
In Commonwealth v. Hernandez, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the denial of the defendant’s motion for a new trial on his indictment for first degree murder. In its ruling, the SJC ruled that the Commonwealth’s nondisclosure of exculpatory evidence prior to trial was error, but that it was not prejudicial. The…
The Appeals Court reversed the denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress items seized pursuant to a warrantless search of his motor vehicle in Commonwealth v. Darosa. The basic facts were as follows. Detective Donahue and other detectives were on patrol in a high crime area when they saw a…
In affirming the defendant’s conviction of voluntary manslaughter in Commonwealth v. Franceschi, the Appeals Court ruled that although the judge erred in admitting an accident reconstruction expert’s testimony about a shoe scuff that was not shown to be scientifically reliable, the error was not prejudicial. The background was as follows.…
In an atypical decision, the SJC declared that the case of Commonwealth v. Salazar “presents one of the rare situations” in which the Court should reduce the defendant’s first degree murder conviction to a second degree murder conviction, pursuant to G.L. c.278, §33E, even though the evidence was sufficient to support…
In Commonwealth v. Cruz, the single justice affirmed the Commonwealth‘s petition pursuant to G.L. c.211, §3, ruling that the discovery order from which the Commonwealth sought relief was erroneous because it ordered the prosecution to disclose information over which it did not have control. The background was as follows. The…
In Commonwealth v. Alexis , the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the allowance of the defendant’s motion to suppress. The Court ruled that under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights “the police cannot avail themselves of the exigency exception to the warrant requirement when it was foreseeable that their actions…
On January 19, the SJC issued its decision in Commonwealth v. Plasse, ruling that a court may, in certain circumstances, incarcerate a defendant for the sole purpose of addiction treatment. The background was as follows. The defendant received a one year continuance without a finding for stealing video games from…
In Commonwealth v. Santos, a case of first impression, the Appeals Court reversed the dismissal of the complaint charging the defendant with reckless endangerment of a child under G.L. c.265, §13L, which was based on the defendant’s inadequate supervision of her daughter. The application for a complaint alleged as follows.…