The Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL) is deeply troubled by the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This decision will have a profound impact on both our clients and members, as well as on the integrity of the legal process.
The Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade is not only an intrusion into the bodily autonomy of people who can become pregnant but is […]
As COVID cases began rising as the weather got colder, MACDL president John Amabile sent a letter to the Chief Justices of the SJC, Superior, and District Courts recommending best practices for court administration (see PDF of the letter below). The recommendations were aimed at mitigating the spread of disease and making our practice more efficient. MACDL recommended statewide directives for restoring remote hearings, accepting electronic filings, and staggering […]
In 2015 there was a brawl at a bar in Plymouth resulting in serious injuries to an off-duty corrections officer. Detective Greg Smith of the Plymouth Police led the investigation which resulted in charges of mayhem and assault and battery causing serious bodily injury against Alex Johnson. After an evidentiary hearing on an O’Dell motion to dismiss, Judge Cosgrove found that Greg Smith failed to provide exculpatory evidence that […]
Defense attorneys Blake Rubin and Angela Cavanaugh were acquitted of witness intimidation after being accused of arranging for a key witness in a human trafficking case to be bailed out so that she could run away and not be available to testify at trial. When the man accused of human trafficking was confronted for bailing the witness out, he blamed his lawyer and the witness’s lawyer for orchestrating this. […]
MACDL’s Board recently sent a letter to Berkshire County District Attorney Andrea Harrington, strongly objecting to DA Harrington’s choice to write an ex parte letter to the Chief Justice of the District Court system requesting the removal of the Honorable Jennifer Tyne from criminal cases. As the letter states, MACDL is deeply concerned by this indefensible and unethical effort to circumvent fair process and undermine the independent decision-making of […]
On Monday March 22, 2021 the Suffolk County DA’s Office announced the Hinton Lab Initiative — a plan to identify a global resolution for any controlled substance conviction resulting from a Hinton Lab case between May 1, 2003 and August 30, 2012. DA Rollins’ office has pledged “to collaborate with the defense bar to identify a global resolution for any controlled substance conviction resulting from any analysis conducted at […]
In Commonwealth v. Vazquez Diaz, MACDL, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, and the Boston Bar Association submitted an amicus brief arguing that a superior court judge acted in violation of Mr. Vazquez Diaz’s rights when it ordered him to undergo a virtual suppression hearing, over his objection and despite his willingness to wait to hold the hearing until it is safe to do so […]
On January 4, 2021, MACDL filed an amicus letter, written by Attorney Amy Belger, in support of an application for Further Appellate Review in a case in which the trial judge concluded that members of the Narcotics Bureau of the Springfield Police Department intentionally destroyed evidence favorable to the defendant. A Springfield Police sergeant ordered the City Forester to remove trees near the scene in order to prevent the […]
On December 24, 2020, CPCS and MACDL, represented by the ACLU of Massachusetts, filed a complaint with the single justice of the SJC alleging that the Houses of Correction (HOCs) failure to conduct routine, comprehensive COVID-19 testing and to meaningfully reduce their populations, as well as five HOCs’ failure to provide meaningful, timely, and confidential modes of communication between incarcerated individuals and their lawyers, violate constitutional guarantees concerning cruel […]
On Monday, December 21, MACDL, CPCS, and ACLUM filed an amended petition in the Supreme Judicial Court alleging that Massachusetts Houses of Corrections still are not undertaking two essential steps to mitigate the threat of COVID-19 in communal living environments: routine, comprehensive COVID-19 testing, and meaningful population reductions, and that their failures violate the 8th Amendment and Article 26. We also argue that 5 facilities are violating the right […]