Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

On November 14, 2019, Thomas Bell, a motorist convicted of DUI, filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court seeking review of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision that warrantless blood test refusals may be used as evidence of guilt in DUI cases under the State’s implied…

In a December 23, 2019 article in the New York Times by Stacey Cowley and Jessica Silver-Greenberg, the New York Times reported on an increasing concern over the use of ignition interlock devices for drivers with drunken driving convictions. The interlock device is connected to the vehicle’s ignition and requires the…

First Circuit finds no right to cross-exam witness in sexual misconduct disciplinary hearing.  On any given day, when schools are in session, university students can end up wandering around as they wonder what to do.  Groups of friends and acquaintances meet up at a local hangout and run into strangers…

A Massachusetts Attorney was reprimanded for a facebook post about his status.  Being friends with many lawyers in Massachusetts and all over the country, the attorney’s facebook post was typical of many attorney posts that I have seen on my newsfeed.  The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers found that this…

Narcan: Not Just For Criminal Overdose As early as the 1960s, the drug, Naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, has been widely used to reverse the effects of opioid overdose. Medical personnel use Narcan to revive patients who have overdosed on opioid-based drugs. In criminal Driving Under the Influence (DUI) cases,…

Recently, the Supreme Court of the United States decided three cases that require a new look at determining the standard for consent under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. In Missouri v. McNeely, the Court held that the taking and testing of a person’s blood could not be done without probable…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the trial court’s decision to allow two witnesses’ identification of a robbery suspect as admissible evidence despite the lack of protocol and questions surrounding the identifications’ reliability.  The SJC alternated the procedures going forward requiring an instruction prior to the identification as in Line…

What is Involuntary Manslaughter in Massachusetts?   Involuntary manslaughter is an unlawful killing base on wanton and reckless conduct.  In both, the Carter and Inyoung You cases, a major issue is whether the defendant had fair notice under the due process clause that there conduct was criminal. The case of…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allows a juror to sit who was equivocal on whether the jury could be fair and impartial in a case of sexual assault on a child.  You wouldn’t loan money based solely on a borrower’s promise to make payments “to the best of their ability.”…

A New York Times article by Stacey Cowley and Jessica Silver-Greenberg confirms what Massachusetts OUI lawyers and defenses attorneys everywhere have been arguing for years, that breath test machine are often inaccurate and unreliable.  The Times found that these machines, a “linchpin of the criminal justice system,” are, at best, unreliable.…