17 results for 'judge:"Gaziano"'.
J. Gaziano declines to comply with the defendant’s request to create a new rule requiring magistrate judges to view lewd images found by law enforcement before issuing search warrants for alleged possession of child pornography. While it would have been preferable for the trooper who submitted the affidavit to have provided a more thorough description of the photos or attached them to the affidavit, the affidavit was still able to establish probable cause. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: May 9, 2024, Case #: SJC-13454, Categories: Search, Child Victims, Child Pornography
J. Gaziano affirms in part the granting of summary judgment mandating disclosure of documents requested by a man whose brother was fatally shot by police after he violently resisted arrest. The privacy exemption does not apply to documents related to police misconduct investigations, and whether or not documents count as being related to a police misconduct investigation is not limited to cases where officers are found guilty of misconduct. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: SJC-13468, Categories: Discovery, Police Misconduct
J. Gaziano upholds the denial of a new trial for defendant. The decision in Commonwealth v. Brown, which stated that “felony-murder is no longer an independent theory of liability for murder,” should not be applied retroactively because the rule in that case is meant to be applied on a prospective basis only. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: April 8, 2024, Case #: SJC-12836, Categories: Fair Trial, Murder, Manslaughter
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J. Gaziano supports the lower court’s decision to deny defendant’s motion to stay execution of his sentence. While his appeal has a high likelihood of success, his history of frequent travel to foreign countries and his connections are evidence that he could be a flight risk and his history of violent, impulsive, racially motivated attacks is evidence that he poses a danger to others. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: SJC-13428, Categories: Evidence, Sentencing
J. Gaziano orders a district attorney’s office to disclose to two criminal defense organizations, two defense attorneys, and two former criminal defendants, all of the categories of documents reviewed by the United States Department of Justice to determine whether the district attorney’s office failed to properly investigate and disclose police misconduct and its impact on criminal prosecutions. This is necessary to adjudicate cases of misconduct on a case-by-case basis.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: SJC-13386, Categories: Due Process, Legal Malpractice, Police Misconduct
J. Gaziano determines Massachusetts is correct that it should be able to retry a defendant for unlawfully carrying a firearm, unlawfully
carrying a loaded firearm and unlawfully carrying ammunition. Defendant was convicted of those charges previously, but the convictions were later vacated because the jury was not informed that convicting the defendant for those crimes required finding that he hadn’t had a firearms license when committing them. The constitutional rule establishing that lack of licensure is an essential part of those crimes wasn’t established until after the defendant was convicted.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: SJC-13315, Categories: Firearms, Double Jeopardy, Jury Instructions
J. Gaziano partially affirms disciplinary sanctions imposed on three prosecutors for withholding evidence that could be used to prove the chemist they were prosecuting was not guilty. One of the lawyers was not aware of the withheld evidence and was only guilty of relying on one of the other lawyers telling him that she had turned over such evidence, so he should not be subject to anything more severe than a public reprimand, but the lawyer who actually withheld the evidence did so knowingly and showed a lack of remorse or candor, so it is appropriate for her to be disbarred. The other lawyer was reckless and incompetent and should be suspended for one year plus one day.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: SJC-13360, Categories: Evidence, Legal Malpractice, Attorney Discipline
J. Gaziano affirms the defendant’s convictions for murder, home invasion and armed assault with intent to rob, as well as the denial of his motion for a new trial, but vacates his firearms-related convictions. The firearms convictions are vacated because the jury was not told that Massachusetts bears the burden of proving that the defendant didn’t have the required firearm licenses, and there is no evidence on record that he didn’t have the required licenses.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: August 10, 2023, Case #: SJC-12649, Categories: Firearms, Murder, Due Process
J. Gaziano finds that no errors were made in convicting defendant of premeditated murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. The victim’s drug possession and dealing was properly excluded from the defendant’s prior trial because being a drug dealer on its own doesn’t provide a third-party culprit defense, and it was also not an error to include that the defendant’s codefendant was in possession of a firearm eight months before he and defendant participated in the murder because the specific firearm hadn’t been ruled out as the murder weapon.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: July 12, 2023, Case #: SJC-13131, Categories: Evidence, Firearms, Murder
J. Gaziano finds that no errors were made in convicting the defendant of premeditated murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. It was correct for the victim’s drug possession and dealing to be excluded from the defendant’s prior trial because being a drug dealer on its own doesn’t provide a third-party culprit defense, and it was also correct to include that the defendant was in possession of a firearm eight months before he and his codefendant participated in the murder because the specific firearm he was in possession of hadn't been ruled out as the murder weapon. Also, while the jury had not been informed that prosecutors were required to prove an absence of a firearm license, but the weight of the evidence against the defendant far outweighs this single omission.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: July 12, 2023, Case #: SJC-13132, Categories: Evidence, Firearms, Murder