Commonwealth v. Ponte invlolves an affidavit in support of application for search warrant, and the veracity of confidential informant (CI) referred to in the application. The Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s allowance of the defendant’s motion to suppress. … Continue reading
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Before a criminal jury trial, the lawyers for the defense and the prosecution are allowed to ask questions of potential jurors to determine whether they have any particular bias that would prohibit them from being fair and impartial in a … Continue reading
In Nieves v. Bartlett, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in the context of a civil suit pursuant to Civil Rights Statute 42 U.S.C.§1983, that “probable cause to make an arrest defeats a claim that the arrest was in retaliation for speech … Continue reading
In Commonwealth v. Javier (2019), the defendant was tried and convicted of first degree murder, the SJC ruled that the judge did not abuse her discretion in permitting a crucial prosecution witness to sit at the prosecution‟s table throughout the trial. The facts are … Continue reading
In Commonwealth v. Hernandez the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (SJC) decided it will no longer follow “the common-law doctrine of abatement ab initio, whereby, as was the case here, a criminal conviction is vacated and the indictment is dismissed after the defendant … Continue reading
In Commonwealth v. Arthur, the Court of Appeals reversed the suppression of the contents of cell phones seized by the police, because the trial judge erroneously ruled that “the police unreasonably delayed obtaining a warrant to search the contents of” … Continue reading
In Commonwealth v. D.M., the SJC reversed the single justice’s denial of the Commonwealth’s petition for relief from an interlocutory order of the Juvenile Court, requiring the Commonwealth to reveal the identity of an informant. The facts are as follows. “Acting on … Continue reading
In Carpenter v. United States (2018), the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that under the Fourth Amendment, the government must obtain a warrant supported by probable cause in order to procure from a telecommunication company the historical cell-site location information (CSLI) … Continue reading
In Commonwealth v. Buckley (February 14, 20180, the SJC affirmed the lower courts denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress, and “declined to disturb the general rule” set forth in Commonwealth v. Santana(1955), “that a traffic stop constitutes a ‘reasonable’ ‘seizure’ for … Continue reading
In Commonwealth v. Ortiz(February 12, 2018), the SJC affirmed the suppression of firearms seized by the police from the defendant’s vehicle. It ruled that the defendant’s “consent to allow the police to search for narcotics or firearms ‘in the vehicle’” did … Continue reading