GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday pardoned Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault Lefave, who were convicted of sexually abusing children in a day care center in the 1980s, in a famous case that has been widely criticized for its lack of evidence and for allegations that child witnesses were improperly pressured into making accusations. “The investigations […]
Courts
Posted inCourts, State Government
Lawsuit seeks to recoup stolen food benefits
PUBLIC ASSISTANCE RECIPIENTS who have had their food benefits stolen filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to require the state to repay the lost aid money. The suit filed by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute against the Department of Transitional Assistance tries to help an estimated thousands of Massachusetts families who had food stamp benefits stolen by […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker pardons four men for decades-old offenses
AS HE CLOSES in on the end of his final term, Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday issued the first pardons of his nearly 8 years in office, wiping away criminal records of four people on decades-old convictions, most of them for relatively minor charges. The four men are Kenneth Dunn, Steven Joanis, Stephen Polignone, and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Innovative court program helps people navigate addiction services
CAPE COD DEFENSE attorney Susan Wenzel had a client with mental health and substance use issues who needed help handling both problems and had no health insurance. His criminal case was still in progress, so he had no access to court-ordered therapy. Wenzel called Rick Palingo, a recovery support navigator who works in Barnstable area […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC to referee another medical parole dispute
SINCE THE LEGISLATURE established medical parole in 2018, prisoners’ rights advocates and Department of Correction officials have been in a near-constant fight about how the law is being implemented. Advocates say the Baker administration has repeatedly applied the law too narrowly, making too few people eligible for release on medical grounds. The Supreme Judicial Court, […]
Posted inPolitics
SJC hears Sal DiMasi lobbying case
FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER Sal DiMasi is a convicted felon. But can he become a lobbyist? State law prohibits someone convicted of a felony under certain state laws from lobbying for 10 years. The Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a case over whether a federal felony conviction – rather than a state conviction […]
Posted inCourts, Health Care, Opinion
How a Mass. court case targeting the opioid crisis could protect abortion access
AFTER THE SUPREME COURT’S decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, several states wasted no time in enacting laws banning abortion. Many of these laws – some without exceptions for rape or incest – went into effect the moment the Supreme Court’s conservative majority wiped away 50 years of precedent. Weeks after the decision, supporters of […]
Posted inCourts, Opinion, Politics
No conviction needed to bar Trump from the ballot
THE CONSTITUTION’S Fourteenth Amendment says that anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, but then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same,” is forever disqualified from public office. What does this mean for Donald Trump after the January 6, 2021 insurrection? If Trump chooses to run for president in 2024, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Quentin Palfrey platform is wish-list of progressive policies
FORMER SUFFOLK DISTRICT ATTORNEY Rachael Rollins, now the US attorney for Massachusetts, made headlines for her pledge not to prosecute certain non-violent offenses. Now, Quentin Palfrey, a Democrat running for attorney general, is making a similar vow statewide. Palfrey, in a new policy platform on criminal justice reform that was shared first with CommonWealth, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
AG candidates fight over fundraising, credentials
IN AN HOUR-LONG DEBATE on Wednesday, the three Democrats running for attorney general issued sharp barbs over each other’s credentials and fundraising but largely agreed on many of the substantive issues. All three – Andrea Campbell, Shannon Liss-Riordan and Quentin Palfrey – pledged to continue to the work of current attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial […]