Joint venturer convicted of murder during armed robbery. Defendant drove victim to meeting and acted as lookout. Substitute medical examiner properly testified despite original examiner's indictment.
Trial judge lacked authority to depart from mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses without legislatively enacted sentencing guidelines. Sentences vacated and remanded.
Sovereign immunity bars postjudgment interest on discrimination damages against public employers unless statute expressly or necessarily waives such immunity.
Easement appurtenant to specific parcels cannot be used to access other parcels, even if no additional burden results. Bright-line rule upheld over flexible fact-based alternative.
Murder conviction upheld where defendant claimed trial error in cross-examination limits, police statements admissibility, inadmissible evidence exposure, and prosecutor argument.
Union member-union privilege does not exist under Massachusetts law, either by statute or common law, to protect employee communications from employer discovery in civil employment discrimination lawsuit.
Same-sex couple using artificial reproductive technology may establish legal parentage without biological connection through presumption in G.L. c. 209C if they jointly raised child.
Trooper lacked probable cause to impound rental vehicle where driver's name was not on rental agreement. Authority to drive rental vehicle may come from renter; unauthorized use statute does not criminalize contractual violations.
Affirmed conviction for murder and unlawful firearm possession. Computer-generated simulation of shooter's height properly excluded as misleading. Sufficient alternative evidence available to jury.
Warrantless seizure of cellular telephone improper where police lack particularized information that device contains evidence of crime, even with probable cause to suspect defendant. Unreasonable delay in obtaining warrant also requires suppression.
