The Road to Commonwealth v. Long
September 21, 2020
Chauncey Wood, co-chair MACDL amicus committee
In the midst of an otherwise horrible week for Justice in America, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a ground-breaking decision on racial justice on September 17, 2020. In Commonwealth v. Long, SJC-12868, the Court unanimously agreed that its previous remedy for addressing racially motivated traffic stops under the equal protection clause of the state and federal constitutions, a statistical […]
MACDL and CPCS Amicus Brief Challenges Parole Board’s “Non-Aggregation” Regulation
On August 20, 2020, CPCS and MACDL submitted an amicus brief to the SJC in Commonwealth v. Dinkins, the parole board’s regulation which makes it so people serving life sentences are “paroled” to any consecutive sentence, rather than having their parole eligibility periods aggregated to one date on which they have a true parole hearing that might actually result in their release into the community. When the […]
Juveniles Should Get Credit for Pretrial Detention
MACDL Amicus for Commonwealth v. Lopez
Unlike adult defendants, children in Massachusetts do not receive credit for time spent in detention pretrial. The Commonwealth has justified this practice by emphasizing differences between juveniles and adults. As MACDL writes in its brief:
Children are indeed different, but DYS’s argument perverts that principle in a misguided effort to treat them worse than their adult counterparts. The reality is that pretrial detention […]
MACDL Supports the Mass Bail Fund
Bail is not a form of punishment. It is set in almost every case to ensure that those charged with a crime return to court during the lengthy period that it may take for the case to resolve. If bail is set in an amount the person can’t afford, he or she will be held in jail without any conviction. In other words, based solely on probable cause to […]
Follow Up on Letter to Judiciary
July 31, 2020
Dear Chief Justices Gants, Carey, Ronquillo, Fabricant and Dawley,
On behalf of MACDL, we thank you for the opportunity to meet via Zoom on July 22, 2020, along with members from the Committee for Pubic Counsel Services, to discuss the issues raised in our July 14, 2020 letter to you. We are pleased and grateful that you expressed a willingness to listen to our concerns and to work with […]
Letter to the Judiciary Opposing Phase 3 Reopening
We have received numerous calls and emails from members who are understandably distressed by the Phase 3 reopening of the state courts, which includes mandatory, in-person appearances for non-emergency hearings such as summons arraignments. In response, MACDL’s Board addressed a letter to Chief Justice Gants and Chief Justice Carey citing our concerns, along with the following proposals:
- Suspend the plan to require in person appearances for non-emergency matters […]