Attorneys with backgrounds in corporate law or as prosecutors are so overrepresented in Massachusetts courts it should set off alarm bells for anybody who believes in the promise of equal justice in the Commonwealth.
Judiciary
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC suspends judge for inappropriate touching
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Wednesday suspended Judge Paul Sushchyk without pay indefinitely after finding that Sushchyk grabbed the butt of a court employee at a court-sponsored event, then lied about the incident to investigators. The court wrote that the suspension should be imposed for a “reasonable time,” which it did not specify, “to permit […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker nominating first Latina to SJC
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S latest nominee to the Supreme Judicial Court is an Appeals Court judge with a background in intellectual property litigation who built a robot while studying engineering at MIT. Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt spoke to reporters after Gov. Charlie Baker introduced her as his latest pick for the Supreme Judicial Court. […]
Posted inUncategorized
SJC: Blind people can serve as jurors
IF A BLIND JUROR is called for jury duty, a judge must decide on a case-by-case basis whether that juror is capable of serving, according to a unanimous decision issued Thursday by the Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC, in an opinion written by Justice Kimberly Budd, ruled in Commonwealth vs. Lawrence Heywood that a judge […]
Posted inOpinion
Bump follows lead of DAs
STATE AUDITOR SUZANNE BUMP has joined the debate over the legal status of the advisory sentencing guidelines that the state’s Sentencing Commission issued two years ago. Her audit of the Sentencing Commission, undertaken at the prompting of some of the state’s district attorneys and issued Thursday, merely confirms a point on which there is no […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Bump weighs in on sentencing guideline dispute
STATE AUDITOR SUZANNE BUMP released an audit on Thursday that concluded draft sentencing guidelines are being used by judges across the state even though the guidelines have never been enacted by the Legislature. Bump’s office initiated its audit after the Massachusetts District Attorney Association complained that the guidelines, which incorporate disparate racial and socioeconomic impacts, […]
Posted inThe Download
In his own image
Choosing justices for the state’s highest court is one of the most overlooked aspects of a governor’s powers, but is one that could now impact a generation or more. With a mandatory retirement age of 70 for judges, it is usually expected that a Massachusetts governor will have the chance to make several appointments to […]
Posted inUncategorized
State courts revamp their website
THE STATE’S TRIAL COURT has upgraded its outmoded computer system to allow lawyers to electronically file case records and to allow judicial decisions to be shared automatically with other government agencies. But proposed regulations governing the system continue to limit access by the general public to court records and bar access to any documents dealing […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
What’s new in the state court system
What follows is the state of the judiciary address of Ralph D. Gants, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, on Tuesday. Introductory comments were edited out. In most other states, drug courts, mental health courts, and veterans’ courts are called problem-solving courts; we call them specialty courts. We do so because we […]