The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today affirmed the murder conviction of a man who participated in a home invasion in Lawrence that ultimately resulted in the shooting death of the drug dealer who lived in the apartment.  The name of the case is Commonwealth v. Joonel Garcia.  (more…)

In 1980, the defendant's wife was stabbed to death in her Bourne home.  Twenty five years later, a man named Steven Stewart was convicted of murdering her.  After Stewart's conviction was reversed on appeal, he entered into a cooperation agreement with the Commonwealth and agreed to testify that he was a hitman, paid by...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court reversed the first-degree murder conviction of a man who shot to death his coworker at a Cambridge company in 2009.  The name of the case is Commonwealth v. Clyde Howard. The defendant and the victim both worked at Baystate Pool Supplies in Cambridge.  On a January morning in 2009,...

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...

On June 18, 2014, the Supreme Judicial Court clarified the scope of the “one-party consent exception” to the state wiretap law (chapter 272, section 99).  In Massachusetts it is illegal to secretly record an oral communication unless all parties to the conversation consent.  However, the one-party consent exception allows a law enforcement officer, or...