In Commonwealth v. Wright, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions for first degree murder and ruled that the judge properly denied the defendant’s motion to suppress statements he made to Canadian authorities. The basic facts were as follows. The defendant was a habitual abuser of drugs and alcohol.…
The Appeals Court recently issued a decision, Commonwealth v. Fredericq, relating to the cell site location information (CSLI). In its decision, the Court reversed in part and affirmed in part the trial court judge’s order suppressing evidence procured by the police by means of their warrantless tracking of CSLI data…
In Commonwealth v. Manha, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the defendant’s conviction of assault with a dangerous weapon. The SJC specifically ruled that the judge properly denied the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence seized by the police after stopping the defendant’s vehicle pursuant to a 911 call from a motorist…
In Commonwealth v. Jones, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the defendant’s first-degree murder conviction and ruled that the imposition of a mandatory sentence of imprisonment for life without the possibility of parole on a developmentally disabled person does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. The background was as follows. The…
The Supreme Judicial Court recently issued a decision – Commonwealth v. Buckley – in which it “decline[d] to disturb [the] general rule” set forth in Commonwealth v. Santana, 420 Mass. 205 (1995), “that a traffic stop constitutes a ‘reasonable’ ‘seizure’ for purposes of art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights…
In Commonwealth v. Ortiz, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the suppression of firearms seized by the police from the defendant’s vehicle. The SJC specifically ruled that the defendant’s “consent to allow the police to search for narcotics or firearms ‘in the vehicle’” did not authorize the “officer to search under…
In Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, the Appeals Court reversed the defendant’s conviction of trafficking in heroin because the field test of the purportedly illegal substance seized by the police was not evaluated for scientific reliability under the Daubert/Lanigan standard (Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 [1993]; Commonwealth v.…
In Commonwealth v. Carlson, the Appeals Court reversed the defendant’s conviction because the judge erred in denying the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence of “the single-photograph identification procedure [employed by the police, which] violated the defendant’s rights under art. 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.” The background was as…
In Commonwelth v. Orbin O., a juvenile, the Supreme Judicial Court issued a decision addressing a Juvenile Court judge’s authority to dismiss a case prior to arraignment. Unlike the decision recently issued in Newton N., however, the SJC ruled that the judge in this case did have the authority to…
The Supreme Judicial Court recently issued a decision in Commonwealth v. Newton N., a juvenile addressing a judge’s authority to dismiss a delinquency complaint against a juvenile prior to arraignment. In its decision, the SJC vacated the dismissal of the delinquency complaint against the juvenile defendant, holding that the Juvenile Court judge…