In Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts reversed the denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress Percocet pills discovered by the police in a vehicle, where the stop of the vehicle was based on the officer’s belief that he detected the odor of burnt marijuana emanating from it as he was driving … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Pagan, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the judge’s reduction of the defendant’s conviction of first-degree murder to second-degree murder, pursuant to Mass. Rules of Criminal Procedure.   The defendant was accused of stabbing a man during a gathering of young men. The defendant was sixteen years old at the time. At trial, … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Gomes,  the Supreme Judicial Court   announced important additions to the model jury instruction on eyewitness identification that has been in effect since the Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Rodriguez, in 1979. This case is about an incident in which the victim’s face was slashed by an unknown man with a box … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Ware, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the denial of the defendant’s motion for leave to conduct postconviction discovery and for funds the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure.  He filed the motion in support of his effort to procure a new trial on a 2009 indictment charging drug distribution, to which he pleaded … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Canning, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court  affiremed the allowance of the defendant’s motion to suppress marijuana plants and related evidence seized by the police from his property pursuant to a warrant.  It did so because the affidavit in support of the warrant application failed to establish probable cause that the defendant was … Read more

In Rodriguez v. United States, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that police detention of a driver to complete a dog sniff of the vehicle violated the Fourth Amendment because it occurred after the police had completed the purpose related to the original stop of the vehicle. The police originally stopped the vehicle because the … Read more

INVENTORY SEARCH With certain exceptions, the police must obtain a warrant before they search a motor vehicle.  One exception is the inventory search of a motor vehicle after the arrest of the driver of the vehicle. In Commonwealth v Crowley-Chester, the Court of Appeals reversed a judge’s ruling of suppression of a loaded firearm discovered … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Cortez, the defendant appealed a motion to withdraw a plea that was denied at the trial court level.  The Court of Appeals ruled that the immigration warning given by the judge during the plea colloquy was adequate, since it was the judge’s customary practice in providing such warnings. At the trial court … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Holmes, the defendant pleaded guilty to a crime in 1997 and was sentenced to a term of incarceration. He completed that sentence and was released. He later committed another crime. and was sentenced to another term of incarceration. During that period of imprisonment, the defendant’s 1997 conviction was vacated and that complaint … Read more

In Commonwealth v. Gonzalez,the Court of Appeals Court reversed the defendant’s convictions of armed carjacking, armed robbery, and intimidation of a witness because the judge failed to conduct a voir dire of the deliberating jury after learning that one of the jurors may have fallen  asleep during the trial. The judge stated that “apparently assuming … Read more