The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) handed down a very interesting ruling recently, that will widely impact how suspects who are accused of sex crimes can be monitored when they are on release pending trial. The court recently ruled that suspected sex offenders cannot be ordered by a judge to wear…
Articles Posted in Sex Offenses
Massachusetts Criminal Court Sentences Child Rapist To Life Imprisonment
Occasionally, I’m asked by other criminal defense lawyers if I have any hesitation writing about or publicly approving of “prosecution wins” – cases where the defendant was found guilty. As a Massachusetts criminal defense attormey, the answer is no, I don’t: I don’t at all believe that truly guilty persons,…
Massachusetts Supreme Court Sees Possible Gender Bias in Statutory Rape Case
In a major step forward in progress toward treating the opposite genders truly equally, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently handed down a sharply divided ruling in a case involving underage sex and statutory rape. The case involved consensual sex between a 14 year old high school boy and three…
Massachusetts Appeals Court Ruling Expands Ability of State To Incarcerate Sexually Dangerous Persons – Part 2 Of 2
In my previous post on this subject, I reviewed the case of a man who had been convicted of eleven (11) prior offenses of exposing himself to women and girls. Despite this history, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge ruled that, following his release from prison after serving a sentence for…
Massachusetts Appeals Court Ruling Expands Ability of State To Incarcerate Sexually Dangerous Persons
A very interesting case was recently decided by the Massachusetts Appeals Court, on the subject of “sexually dangerous persons.” The decision provided a clearer (and much needed) definition of just what constitutes a “sexually dangerous person,” and the state’s ability to incarcerate such individuals when they have not been found…
Massachusetts Child Rape Reform Bill Awaits Governor’s Signature
Sorry I haven’t posted anything in several days. I’ve been down with a bit of a summer flu, but hope you’ve been visiting, nonetheless. A major legislative effort has come to a head up on Beacon Hill, which would reform the current child rape statute by increasing the mandatory minimum…
Repressed Memory Evidence Challenged In Massachusetts Sex Conviction
Paul Shanley, a former catholic priest with the Archdiocese of Boston who was convicted in 2005 of the repeated rape of an altar boy in the 1980’s, has filed a Motion for a New Trial, challenging the validity of the evidence used to convict him in 2005, reports the Boston…