The Herald reports our molasses-like legislature could move like a bat out of hell - just like they did with upskirting - and do something about Supreme Judicial Court rulings this week that the state parole board can't order lifetime supervision of sex offenders.
The Supreme Judicial Court today tossed a Fall River man's murder confession because police waited too long to start asking him about the case while he was in custody.
The ruling, which reaffirms a 1996 ruling that set a six-hour maximum for obtaining a confession after a suspect is arrested, leaves Massachusetts at odds with most other states, which let police take longer if the "totality of the circumstances" warrants it.
The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered a new trial for a Dominican national who has lived in Boston since he was 11 because he never would have pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to distribute if he knew that would mean mandatory deportation.
The Globe reports on Supreme Judicial Court Justice Robert Cordy, who once did lobbying for Suffolk Downs and who worked for then Gov. William Weld, now a lawyer for Steve Wynn, which is battling Suffolk Downs/Mohegan Sun for the Boston area's one casino license.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that parent-teacher conferences are not the sort of "public" events that a city can use to protect itself against lawsuits by people who slip and fall while on their way inside to meet with their kids' teachers.
The ruling by the state's highest court means Michelle Wilkins of Haverhill will be allowed to make the case that the city owes her big time for the injuries she suffered slipping on ice outside the school.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance doesn't violate the First Amendment rights of non-believers in part because its origins are in Cold War patriotism, not religion - and in part because nobody in Massachusetts can be forced to recite it.
The state's highest court's ruling comes in the case of an atheist Acton couple who objected to the inclusion of the phrase in the pledge their three children wanted to recite with their classmates every morning.
The court noted that while the phrase "under God" can obviously carry a religious connotation:
The Supreme Judicial Court next week hears arguments on whether existing car dealers can sue to keep Tesla Motors from offering its electric cars directly to the public, rather than through franchised dealers.
A Norfolk Superior Court judge said the existing car dealers had no standing to sue Tesla for alleged unfair competition because the state law that bans direct manufacturer sales refers only to competition between car makers and their affiliated franchisees.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that police don't need a warrant to try to save animals in danger of immediate death.
The decision comes in the case of a Lynn woman charged with three counts of animal cruelty when police, responding to a call from her neighbor, found three dogs on her lawn - two dead, one nearly so - and went into her yard to recover the animals without first obtaining a warrant.
The state's highest court said this fell under an exemption to the Fourth Amendment and the similar Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights that allows warrantless searches and seizures to save a life:
To a layman, the case might sound simple: A guy climbs stairs to his apartment, but leans on the guardrail, which breaks and sends him plummeting to pavement below, resulting in serious injuries - and a lawsuit against his landlords.
But in a decision today, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled his landlords are not liable for his injuries under a state law mandating compliance with the state building code - because the building is not a building as defined by that law.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that a wiretapped statement by an H-Block associate charged with murdering a young teen in a feud with the rival Heath Street gang can be used against him because H-Block is involved with the sort of "organized crime" for which state law allows wiretaps.
The Supreme Judicial Court says the state can't expand its online database of sex offenders with the names of "Level 2" offenders convicted before the governor signed a law to add information on such offenders to the system last year.
The Supreme Judicial Court today dismissed a lawsuit by the town of Hanover against a union that helped finance a lawsuit against the town over construction of a new high school.
The state's highest court ruled that the New England Regional Council of Carpenters has protection under a state law against lawsuits aimed at quashing citizens' First Amendment rights to seek government action to right a wrong.
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UPDATE, Friday afternoon: Gov. Patrick has signed the anti-upskirting (also, anti-downblowsing) bill into law.
The Globe reports both houses of the state legislature today approved a measure to ban upskirting, the day after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled current state law does not prohibit it.
The Supreme Judicial Court today tossed charges against a Green Line rider caught snapping photos up the skirts of female Green Line riders in 2010.
In its ruling, the state's highest court said the law used to prosecute Michael Robertson applies only to "nude" or "partially nude" women in private locations, such as bedrooms, not to clothed women - even women with no undergarments - in public places such as the T.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that people seeking to overturn drug convictions based on the work of disgraced state chemist Annie Dookhan still have to prove that was the overriding reason they agreed to plead guilty.
In several rulings today, the court agreed that Dookhan's thousands of falsifications represented an "egregious" ethical and legal breach and that lawyers for defendants would not have to spend any time trying to prove that.
But as in earlier cases involving work by state chemists and technicians, the court said that by itself that doesn't mean an automatic reversal of a guilty plea or finding.
Ultimately, a defendant's decision to tender a guilty plea is a unique, individualized decision, and the relevant factors and their relative weight will differ from one case to the next. ... Moreover, a particular case may give rise to consideration of additional relevant factors not identified (in earlier cases), such as whether the defendant was indicted on additional charges and whether the drug-related charges were a minor component of an over-all plea agreement.
The court detailed its reasoning in the case of a Boston man who had originally admitted to sufficient facts to warrant a finding of guilty on possession of crack in 2011, only to have his case continued without a finding on condition he stay out of trouble for a year. When he was arrested on an assault-and-battery charge, he was also charged with violating probation for the drug charge.
Rakim Scott then moved to have the drug plea revoked, because Dookhan had certified the substance he was found with was crack. A lower-court judge agreed, but Suffolk County prosecutors appealed.
The court sent the case back to a lower court for a hearing on whether Scott's decision to admit to sufficient facts was based on factors other than Dookhan's work:
[W]e conclude that because Dookhan signed the drug certificate as an assistant analyst in Scott's case, and because Scott offered the signed drug certificate in support of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea, Scott is entitled to a conclusive presumption that Dookhan's misconduct was egregious, is attributable to the government, and occurred in his case. However, we vacate the order allowing the defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and we remand this case for findings on the question whether there is a reasonable probability that the defendant would not have pleaded guilty had he known of Dookhan's misconduct at the Hinton drug lab.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that police cannot obtain location data kept by wireless providers without a search warrant.
In a split decision, the state's highest court said that while federal law allows law-enforcement officers to get a customer's "cell site location information" through a court order, Massachusetts law requires them to show they have probable cause to believe the information is directly related to a crime - a higher legal standard - under the privacy limits of Article 14 of the state constitution.
The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld Charon Ray's conviction for fatally shooting a teen when he was 16 - his victim was 14 - but said that at some point he could seek parole under federal and state rulings that life without parole is a cruel and unusual punishment for minors.
The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today a psychologist who convinced a woman to go to authorities when she told a him a man raped her when she was a child visiting his house can be compelled to hand over notes related to the allegation.
In its ruling, the state's highest court said that while defendants cannot go on "fishing expeditions" with the records of accusers who seek professional help, in this case, Bernard LaBroad was seeking documents related specifically to the charge brought against him. The court noted the psychologist had detailed the statements the woman made in an interview with police.
The Supreme Judicial Court today ruled a man convicted of a 1981 murder in Kenmore Square can apply for parole because he was only 17 at the time he became a killer, because his automatic sentence of life without parole violates both the federal and state prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment, at least as far as adolescents are concerned.
The US Supreme Court ruled last year that juvenile murderers could not be automatically sentenced to life without parole but that a judge could use his discretion to impose such a sentence after a hearing.
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