What I’m going to write about today will be of interest to not only Massachusetts OUI lawyers such as myself, but to anyone who drives in Massachusetts. Previously, on July 1 of this year, I blogged about a case that was handed down by the United States Supreme Court earlier…
My apologies for my absence here recently – I’ve been sidelined with a bad cold. Here’s an item that will probably be appreciated mostly by lawyers (vs. lay persons,) but on a legal level, the issue is significant. It’s a decision by the state Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) that more…
Here’s an interesting development that’s appropriate for the high school and college football season, and it underscores that the words “foul play” have as much to do with criminal law as they do with sports. An Arlington, Massachusetts high school football player has been formally charged with criminal assault and…
I’ve been traveling out of office for a couple of weeks, and I haven’t posted anything for too long – my apologies to my loyal readers. Today, I want to send this brief message: I’ve been given a lot of good things in this life. I’ve had my share of…
Not that many people outside of the criminal defense profession or the criminal justice system are aware of this, but in Massachusetts, once a convicted sex offender’s prison sentence is finished, the story isn’t necessarily over. You see, once a convict’s criminal sentence for a Massachusetts sex offense has been…
Here’s an interesting case that might fall under the tagline, “Don’t answer that phone!” In a case that illustrates occasional over-reaching by police officers in their attempts to secure evidence of criminal wrongdoing, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge recently ruled that evidence, obtained by police officers who answered a defendant’s…
In my previous post, I discussed a recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling, concerning the admissibility of jail inmates’ recorded phone conversations. More accurately put, the decision concerns not so much the admissibility of these recordings in and of themselves, but in how the recordings must be obtained by…
In the constant tug-of-war between Massachusetts prosecutors’ offices and criminal defense attorneys over admissible evidence, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) yesterday issued a ruling against prosecutors, and in favor of defendants who are incarcerated and awaiting trial. The case concerns a shocking event that occurred in January 2007, at…
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) keeps churning out some interesting decisions, this one on the subject of the privacy, or lack thereof, that inmates and detainees in Massachusetts prisons can expect in their telephone conversations. In a 4-3 ruling, the SJC ruled earlier this month that both prison inmates,…
Striking down a city ordinance that I am sure was well-meaning and not malignant in its intent, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) yesterday ruled unconstitutional a city of Lowell ordinance making it a crime of youths under the age of 17 to be on city streets after 11:00 PM…