In an opinion issued last week, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a defendant's felony motor vehicle homicide conviction because a testifying state trooper offered an inappropriate expert opinion about the cause of the accident.  The case is Commonwealth v. Douglas Guinan. In 2010, the defendant was driving his 2011 Hyundai Sonata on South Street...

In a decision that could have far-reaching implications for future drug prosecutions, the Massachusetts Appeals Court today reversed drug possession convictions of a woman that resulted from her arrest in Haverhill.  The name of the case is Commonwealth v. Dolores Paine. In October of 2008, a state trooper came upon a pickup truck parked...

The Massachusetts Appeals Court yesterday affirmed a defendant's conviction for multiple counts of child rape that were based, in part, on the defendant's confessions during an instant messaging ("IM") chat with one of the prosecution witnesses. The name of the case is Commonwealth v. David Oppenheim. The defendant and his wife founded and operated...

When a criminal defendant elects to have a jury trial, there is an expectation that the jurors will be attentive during the trial.  But what happens when one of the jurors appears to sleep through the evidence?  The Appeals Court considered the issue this week in Commonwealth v. Luis Gonzalez. During the deliberations, the...

In an entertaining opinion delivered last week, the Massachusetts Appeals Court considered whether a man had been fairly convicted of a crime for wearing see-through shorts to a local Target store.  The Court concluded, in Commonwealth v. Coppinger, that the law was constitutional and that the prosecution had provided sufficient evidence to convict the defendant....