Commonwealth v. Villagran (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-145-17)
Police officer's pat-frisk and search of nonstudent's backpack at high school violated Fourth Amendment; officer lacked reasonable suspicion and probable cause.
SJC Opinions
Commonwealth v. Perez (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-142-17)
Juvenile offender sentenced to thirty-two and one-half years with parole eligibility after twenty-seven and one-half years for armed robberies and shooting a police officer. Sentence presumptively violates proportionality requirement when non-murder juvenile receives longer parole eligibility than juvenile murderer. Remanded for Miller hearing.
Brangan v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-143-17)
Defendant held on unaffordable bail receives due process protections. Judge must consider defendant's financial resources, provide written findings explaining bail calculation, and cannot use bail to detain dangerous defendants without statutory preventive detention procedures.
Commonwealth v. Barbosa (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-144-17)
Murder conviction affirmed where GPS data, surveillance footage, and witness testimony established defendant's knowing participation in premeditated murder as joint venturer.
Commonwealth v. Shelley (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-141-17)
Defendant charged with murder sought instruction on time-barred manslaughter. Court held defendant not entitled to both lesser included offense instruction and statute of limitations defense without waiving the latter.
Commonwealth v. Wampler (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-134-17)
Single justice's denial of leave to appeal from post-conviction motion is final and unreviewable; no appeal to full court lies.
Riva v. Massachusetts Parole Board (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-136-17)
Parole board certiorari case; discovery disputes and mootness concerns adequately addressed on appeal from final judgment.
Martin v. Superior Court Department of the Trial Court (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-137-17)
Attorney indicted on rape charges sought to disqualify prosecutor based on prior working relationship. Supreme Judicial Court affirmed denial, finding issue properly reviewable on appeal from conviction.
Wassilie v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-135-17)
Defendant indicted on videotaping charges sought dismissal arguing duplicative counts violated double jeopardy. Affirmed; review of motion to dismiss unavailable pretrial except for substantial double jeopardy claims.
Commonwealth v. Duart (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-132-17)
Affirmed. Defense counsel's failure to disclose judge's familial relationship with prosecutor's office was inadequate performance but caused no prejudice given defendant's prior valid concerns about local jury bias.