Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

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.…

Recent charges filed against a former Boston College Student are similar to the landmark Michelle Carter case where the SJC found that passive conduct of sending text messages could constitute involuntary manslaughter, despite the fact that Carter was not present at the time of death in that case.  Inyoung You,…

  Like all things in the law, the answer to the question “is this a seizure?” is “it depends.”  A seizure, under criminal law, is similar to being stopped or detained.  The Massachusetts Declaration of Human Rights and the United States Constitution protect citizens from unreasonable seizures.  A seizure does…

Is Google Map evidence admissible in a jury trial?  An appeals court in Florida recently said “not necessarily” when it reviewed this question in City of Miami v. Kho.   Juanita Kho sued the City of Miami for negligence after a trip-and-fall accident on a Miami sidewalk in 2010.  The…

United States Supreme Court considering a First Amendment challenge to Michelle Carter’s conviction.  Michelle Carter, the 17-year-old who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III, when she had sent text messages encouraging him to commit suicide, has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for…

The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently reviewed Commonwealth v. Larose to answer whether it was reasonable, and therefore valid, for a police officer to stop the defendant’s motor vehicle for failing to drive entirely within a marked traffic lane. The defendant was traveling during the early morning hours on Route…

In a recent Massachusetts Appeals Court opinion, Commonwealth v. Taylor, the court allowed the Commonwealth to essentially get “two bites at the apple” when prosecuting a defendant for firearm possession. The defendant was first charged with “carrying a loaded firearm.”  The charge of “carrying a loaded firearm,” as written in…

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed an involuntary manslaughter conviction in the case of Commonwealth v. Carrillo based on the defendant allegedly causing the victim to overdose on heroin.  Massachusetts’s highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court (“SJC”), vacatedUMass Amherst grad student Jesse Carrillo’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, who, in October 2013, Jesse…