In Commonwealth v. Riz, the Court of Appeals vacated a special condition of probation that was imposed on the defendant, requiring that he “not ‘minimize’ his crimes during sex abuse treatment, in contact with church authorities, and in dealing with his probation officer.” The facts are as follows:  The defendant was convicted of sexual abuse … Read more

In Commonwealth v produit viagra sans ordonnance. Brangan, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that “the trial judge’s order granting the defendant’s motion for a mistrial was not appealable” by the Commonwealth. The background was as follows. The defendant was convicted of armed robbery of a bank while masked. There was evidence that “the robber … Read more

After a conviction at trial or a resolution by plea, a defendant may be required to pay restitution as a condition of probation.   Often, a defendant is not able to fully pay restitution despite best efforts.  The  SJC addressed this issue in Commonwealth v. Henry  by vacating the judge’s restitution order because the judge “failed … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Wade (2016) the SJC reversed the judge’s denial of the defendant’s postconviction motion for scientific testing of biological evidence where after the defendant had “demonstrated that ‘the requested analysis had not yet been developed at the time of conviction.”’  ”The judge denied the motion “on the erroneous ground that the defendant also was … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Howard the defendant in this case was convicted of first-degree murder on theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty in connection with the shooting death of a colleague at their place of work. The defense at trial was that due to diminished capacity, the defendant was unable at the time … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Santos, the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)  affirmed the defendant’s convictions of rape of a child with force and related offenses, and rejected  the defendant’s argument that his motion to suppress evidence obtained from a warrantless search of his apartment should have been allowed. The defendant and the complainant’s grandmother lived in the … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Sullivan, the Court of Appeals reversed the defendant’s conviction of Accosting or Annoying a Person of the Opposite Sex on the ground that the Commonwealth’s evidence was insufficient to support the conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. There was evidence that the defendant approached a young woman at night and repeatedly urged her … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Philbrook (2016), the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) affirmed the defendant’s convictions of first-degree murder and related offenses, and  the SJC ruled that the judge did not abuse her discretion in admitting evidence of other bad acts by the defendant “shortly prior to and immediately following the killing.” The facts are as follows. “The … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Abdallah (2016), the SJC affirmed the lower court’s allowance of the defendant’s motion to suppress the fruits of an inventory search of his backpack by the police during booking.  In so doing, it found the seizure of the backpack at the time of the defendant’s arrest was unreasonable. The facts are summarized … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Mulgrave, the Supreme Judicial Cout of Massachusets (SJC) ruled that a cellular telephone text message sent by the defendant’s wife shortly before her death was admissible under the spontaneous utterance exception to the hearsay rule. The case arose from the stabbing of his wife by the defendant in the context of their … Read more