The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered a new trial for Joseph Pope, who was convicted in 1986 for his role in a drug-related murder in Uphams Corner two years earlier because an assistant Suffolk County district attorney withheld notes he took during the murder investigation that that might have helped the defense. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered a new trial for a woman whose child a judge took away after a Zoom-based trial that started with the woman getting cut off and being unable to log in via video to make her pro-se case or even to hear some witnesses. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that the insurers for Coppa and Toro in the South End and Little Donkey in Central Square do not have to reimburse owner Ken Oringer for Covid-19 losses because the virus did not cause the permanent damage to his tables and other furnishings that might be covered under his "all risks" policies. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that re-trying Dario Baxter for first-degree murder for the 2018 death of Michael Ross on Wayland Street in Dorchester would be a violation of his right against double jeopardy, but added that Suffolk County prosecutors can still try to convict him as an accessory after the fact and on gun charges related to the case. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today set out ways that police can subpoena tens of thousands of cell-phone records to try to link specific phone calls to crimes, in a case in which they used the technique to connect a Canton man to the murder of Jose Luis Phinn Williams at a Dorchester gas station and to a series of other similar, if less deadly, robberies that year in Mattapan, Canton and Cambridge. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld the suspension of Paul Sushchyk as a probate and family judge for "intentional, nonconsensual, and unwelcome" groping of a court worker at an outing and then lying about it - and said he should remain off the job until the legislature and governor decide whether he should be booted off the bench permanently. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld Andrew Robertson's first-degree murder conviction for the shooting death of Romeo McCubbin on Havelock Street on Dec. 14, 2013. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld Da Lin Huang's first-degree murder conviction for the death of his estranged wife in their Allston apartment in 2001. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that Suffolk County prosecutors can use as evidence a gun seized from a Roxbury man after a gang-unit officer watched him in a Snapchat video displaying the weapon. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered that a Covid-19-based ban on jury trials continue through Feb.14.
In a statement, Chief Justice Kimberly Budd said: Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a Virginia man's convictions for raping a co-worker and photographing her in the nude without her consent while they were in Boston on a business trip in 2018. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered a halt to all jury trials in state courts until Jan. 31 due to the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases, and the potential difficulties of conducting trials in courtrooms crowded with lots of people.
Courts otherwise remain open, but the court continues to urge all parties to handle matters via Zoom or telephone calls whenever possible.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that Manuel Andrade, now 47, deserves the sentence of life without possibility of parole he got for starting the shootout outside a Geneva Avenue house party that left a 22-year-old woman visiting from Kentucky dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that Edwin Alemany got a fair trial and will spend the rest of his life in prison for stabbing and strangling Amy Lord to death in Stony Brook Reservation - and for attacking two other women - in 2013. Read more.
Police can't use stored body-camera video collected inside a home in one case as evidence to arrest somebody in another case without first getting a warrant to search it, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled today. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today said a man on involuntary commitment to Bridgewater State Hospital has to be transferred to a less restrictive state mental hospital and that the state Department of Corrections can't simply disregard a judge's order to do so. Read more.
A registered nurse pursued by an angry woman who tagged Children's Hospital in a Facebook rant after learning the nurse had gotten a job there can continue her suit against the hospital under a state law intended to protect victims of domestic violence and harassment, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled today. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today vacated the first-degree murder convictions of Antwan Carter and Daniel Pinckney, who had been tried for shooting a man simply trying to get his keys out of his locked car as the two allegedly roamed a rival gang's territory in 2007 looking to avenge the earlier shooting of one of their pals. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today pointed to breakthrough delta-variant cases and ruled that judges can no longer automatically discount past infection or vaccination in deciding whether inmates and people awaiting trial are eligible for a potential release for Covid-19-related health reasons. Read more.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld Charlie Brea's first-degree murder conviction for shooting a man to death during a fight he wasn't initially a part of outside the Breezeway on Blue Hill Avenue in 2010, ruling that even discounting mistakes by the judge and the prosecutor at trial, the evidence was just too overwhelming and the jury would have convicted him anyway. Read more.
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