The Supreme Judicial Court issued a recent decision – Commonwealth v. Accime – bearing directly on the intersection of criminal law and mental health law. The background was as follows. “[T]he defendant was brought by ambulance and against his will to the [psychiatric area of a hospital’s] emergency department,” where he…
In a recent decision, Commonwealth v. Thomas, the Supreme Judicial Court made several important pronouncements in reference to its decision in Commonwealth v. Silva-Santiago, 453 Mass. 782 (2009), and subsequent developments. The background was as follows. The defendant and a woman named Johnson were passengers in a vehicle driven by…
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA In a recent decision issued by the SJC – Commonwealth v. Horne – the Court precluded “negative profiling” testimony. Specifically the Court held that it was improper to elicit testimony regarding the appearance of drug users, in conjunction with the argument that the defendant did not look like…
The Supreme Judicial Court recently issued a decision stating that it is improper for police officers involved in the investigation of a case to be present in the grand jury during the testimony of other witnesses involved in the case. The conviction in the case, however, was not reversed. Rather,…
In a recent case issued by the Appeals Court – Commonwealth v. Doe – the Court vacated the trial court judge’s order “denying [the defendant’s] petition to seal his criminal record in a case terminated by a nolle prosequi.” A nolle prosequi is a declaration made by a prosecutor in…
In Commonwealth v. Martin, the SJC addressed whether defendants whose convictions were vacated as a result of the Annie Dookhan drug lab scandal should be reimbursed for court fees paid prior to the allowance of the motion to vacate. The SJC decided against such reimbursement, stating that “there [was] no statutory…
According to a recent news article on www.Masslive.com, questions remain as to who was responsible for the Commonwealth’s failure to disclose exculpatory discovery to defense attorneys in the Amherst drug lab scandal. The scandal came to light in 2013, after state officials determined that one of the chemists working in…
In a recent article in the Worcester Telegram, a Superior Court judge ordered the Commonwealth to turn over certain discovery to the defense attorney in a murder case – namely all electronic communications between state police troopers involved in investigating the case. The defendant is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing…
In a decision recently issued by the Appeals Court – Commonwealth v. Palacios – the Court held that ambulance records are admissible under G. L. c. 233, § 79G, which governs the admissibility of hospital records. Therefore, the Court held that the trial judge’s decision to admit such records was not…
According to an article in New York Magazine, the criminal justice system needs to reconsider it’s approach to offenders that are young adults in light of recent findings on brain development. The article states that the United States criminal justice system has “been notorious for its proclivity for imprisoning children,”…