Court affirms convictions for murder, armed robbery, and weapons charges. Warrantless stop justified by reasonable suspicion based on temporal and geographic proximity to fatal shooting, unusual lack of activity, and suspicious vehicle behavior.
Juvenile adjudicated as youthful offender and delinquent for sexual assault. Court vacates mandatory sex offender registration and GPS monitoring requirements.
Federal regulations permit the Department to petition for termination of parental rights of unaccompanied refugee minors to enable adoption, even when parents live in the United States.
Fingerprint evidence alone insufficient to support breaking and entering and larceny convictions when Commonwealth failed to prove fingerprint was placed during the crime.
Environmental activists' blog post criticizing a consulting firm's scientific work on oil spill cleanup qualifies as protected petitioning activity under Massachusetts's anti-SLAPP statute, even though the defendants advocated for others' interests rather than their own personal grievances.
Disorderly conduct conviction reversed where defendant's resistant behavior in hospital psychiatric emergency room posed no proven risk of public disturbance outside his confined space.
Supreme Judicial Court addresses consequences of failing to follow eyewitness identification protocol and whether police violated due process in showing single firearm photograph.
Wife's petition for alimony filed four years after divorce was initial complaint, not modification. Durational limits commence when general term alimony is awarded. Judge must consider overtime income and address health insurance.
Murder conviction affirmed where expert testimony about defendant's goal-directed behavior and prosecutor's closing argument were properly admitted.
Juvenile indicted for murder and related nonmurder offenses must be prosecuted entirely in Superior Court; nonmurder charges need not first proceed in Juvenile Court.
