Articles Posted in Criminal Appeals

In response to the historic 1966 case of Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court declared that any person taken into police custody must be informed of the right not to make self-incriminating statements under the Fifth Amendment. In Miranda v. Arizona, Ernesto Arturo Miranda was convicted on charges of rape, kidnapping and armed robbery based on a confession he made while being interrogated by police. Had he known his Fifth Amendment rights, Miranda would likely not have confessed to the crimes in question. As such, our “right to remain silent,” and associated rights are commonly referred to as the Miranda Rights.

The Four ‘Miranda Rights’

If you are placed in police custody, you must be read your Miranda Rights prior to being questioned. These rights are as follows:

• You have the right to remain silent.
• Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
• You have the right to an attorney.
• If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.

Occasionally police will fail to read the Miranda Rights to a suspect in custody. Whether they just forgot, or chose to do so, is irrelevant. If you are questioned without receiving your Miranda rights, any confession you make will likely be considered involuntary, and thus inadmissible in your case. In addition, any evidence obtained by way of the involuntary statement may also be thrown out. A MA defense attorney can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been charged with a crime.

An Unlawful Confession

Consider the following scenario. Stephanie is arrested on suspicion that she was involved in a hit and run accident. Before being read her Miranda rights, Stephanie is questioned. She breaks down in tears, saying she only fled the scene because her friend – who had a bag of illegal prescription pills – told her to keep driving. Stephanie also confesses that they threw the bag of pills out of the car window after the accident. The police, in turn, find the bag of drugs and submit as evidence in court.

If Stephanie has a good defense attorney, the attorney will challenge her confession, saying that Stephanie would never have confessed if she had known her right to remain silent. The judge is likely to find the confession unlawful, which means that both the confession and the drugs discovered as a result of the confession will probably be thrown out. A Boston criminal defense attorney can help you protect your rights if you are facing charges for any type of crime.

Fifth Amendment

Miranda rights are essentially an extension of our Fifth Amendment rights. They are intended to ensure that any suspect knows his or her rights and, if choosing to waive those rights, does so voluntarily. The following is the text of the Fifth Amendment:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Continue reading

A criminal conviction in Massachusetts doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a case. If you feel that you’ve been wrongfully convicted of a crime, you may have a few more options. Depending on the circumstances surrounding your wrongful conviction, you may be able to move for a new trial with a new jury. But a judge will only grant a new trial if serious errors or injustices occurred during the original trial. More likely, you will request an appeal of the decision.

In an appeal, the defendant challenges his or her conviction, or the associated sentence. It is possible for the sentence to be challenged by itself, and not the underlying conviction. The appeal is heard by a higher court known as an appellate court. If successful, the appellate court will change the decision of the lower court. In certain cases, an appeal can end a case in its entirety, but generally an appeal simply takes the case back a few stages.

What if the Intermediate Appellate Court Upholds My Conviction?

The appeal process can seem to drag on forever. In most situations, the defendant will first appeal to an intermediate appellate court. If that court upholds the conviction, the defendant can then appeal to the highest court in the state. If still unsuccessful, the defendant can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. That is to say, if the higher court approves the request to review the case. A MA criminal defense attorney can help if you wish to file an appeal.

Appeals are generally reviewed only when the request is based on a legal claim made by the defendant during the trial. For example, if a defendant claimed that he was getting ineffective assistance from his counsel during the trial, his request is more likely to be reviewed than if he had stayed silent about his concerns until the trial had concluded.

And errors during the trial don’t guarantee a successful appeal. In order for an appellate court to reverse a conviction or reduce a sentence, the legal error must have likely contributed to the defendant’s guilty verdict. If the defendant’s constitutional rights were violated, however, the conviction may be reversed even if the violation didn’t impact the outcome. A Boston criminal defense attorney can help you determine how to proceed if you’ve been charged with any type of crime.

Can I Appeal if I Plead Guilty?

Yes. But your options are seriously limited. Guilty pleas are intended to be final. In rare situations, a conditional guilty plea may be granted with the ability to appeal a specific issue. In other cases, you may file a petition for something called a writ of habeas corpus. Habeas corpus presents an argument as to why a guilty plea should be withdrawn. For example, what if Bob plead guilty to an assault charge because he thought it was the best option? But new evidence shows that Bob actually acted in self defense? Bob may be able to file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, with the hope that his conviction will be overturned. If the judge denies the request, he can appeal. Continue reading

The fall of 2017 will be a time of major decision making for the U.S. Supreme Court and its new Justice Neil Gorsuch. The Court will be deciding on a number of cases, but its focus on the following cases and criminal law issues is of particular interest to attorneys nationwide. A Boston criminal defense attorney can help you protect your rights if you’ve been charged with any type of crime.

Cell Phone Searches

Is cell phone location data simply routing information, or does it constitute conversational content? That is the big question in United States v. Carpenter, the case in which law enforcement officers used cell site data to incriminate Timothy Carpenter. The officers didn’t get a warrant before obtaining this information, and they used it to link Carpenter to locations at which several robberies had occurred. If cell phone location data is only a form of routing information, it is not protected by the Fourth Amendment. If, however, the Supreme Court decides that this information is a form of conversational content, it is protected by the Fourth Amendment, making law enforcement’s actions in the above case unconstitutional.

Dominick Cristino is a free man. Nearly two years since he was sentenced to up to two-and-a-half years in prison for stalking Milford’s police chief, the MA man’s convictions have been vacated. In addition to physically following the police chief he was convicted of stalking, Cristino also posted various “threatening comments” on Facebook. He was released in April, pending his appeal, and three Appeals Court judges made that release permanent last Friday.

Prosecutors alleged that Cristino’s comments were “true threats” and thus, not constitutionally-protected remarks. Initially,  Cristino’s motion for a required finding of not guilty was denied by Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Wrenn. He ruled that “there was clear evidence to establish that these were true threats rather than protected speech under the First Amendment.” But the appeals court disagreed.

“We conclude that the statements made by the defendant that were the basis for his convictions were constitutionally protected speech, and therefore could not be the basis for conviction,” ruled the court. They went on to say that the First Amendment protects political remarks made about public officials. In fact, these types of comments are at the First Amendment’s core. A MA defense lawyer can help you determine how to proceed if you are facing stalking charges.

Cristino’s Facebook posts were highly critical of both heads of the Milford police department, accusing them of everything from alcohol abuse and inappropriate relationships with criminals, to outright corruption. Cristino also painted critical messages on his truck, posted signs on his property, and followed the police chief throughout town, often driving past establishments frequented by the police chiefs.

While the Appeals Court did say that Cristino’s comments could be considered threats on their own, together they do not constitute stalking. “True threats” are direct threats of physical harm, actions, or words, that reasonably cause the victim to fear for his or her safety.

In an unpublished decision, the Appeals Court panel wrote the following:

“Having reviewed the Facebook postings that were the grounds for the defendant’s convictions and having considered the context of the videos, we conclude that they did not constitute threats of the kinds of unlawful acts of violence that render speech unprotected.”

“Rather, the defendant’s posts ‘primarily discuss issues of public concern,’ as they are clearly directed at exposing what the defendant considered to be shortcomings in the chief’s and deputy chief’s ability to properly perform their public positions,” ruled the court. “In accusing the chief and deputy chief of drinking on the job, spending time with known local criminals, and generally being corrupt, the defendant’s videos were obviously attacking their capacity to effectively serve as police officers.”

What are the Penalties for Stalking in MA?

Stalking crimes are punished harshly in MA. If you have been convicted of stalking, you may be facing the following penalties:

• First offense: Up to five years in prison, and a fine of up to $1,000
• Second offense: Up to 10 years in prison

As with all criminal offenses, experienced legal counsel is essential to a positive outcome. A Boston defense attorney can help you determine how to protect your rights if you’ve been charged with stalking. We often think of a stalker as a man who follows his female victim home at night and lurks outside her window. Although this is one example of stalking, this criminal act can take many forms and affects both men and women. Stalking can include physical following, emails, phone calls, and social media posts. And it’s quite common; about 6.6 million people are stalked in the U.S. annually. Continue reading

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), more than 20,000 drug cases are on their way to dismissal following the criminal actions of Annie Dookhan, a former MA state chemist. In 2013, Dookhan pleaded guilty to 27 counts, including tampering with evidence, perjury, and obstruction of justice. The disgraced chemist was called Superwoman by her co-workers because she completed tasks so quickly, but there was a criminal element to her speed. Dookhan was found to have returned positive results for drugs she never even tested. She also forged signatures and mishandled samples.

Thousands of drug convictions have been tainted by Dookhan’s actions. In January, district attorneys were ordered to complete a monumental task; they needed to compile lists of individuals who – they believed – could be re-prosecuted, and another list of those whose cases should be dismissed. On Tuesday, lawyers counted 21,587 cases likely to be dismissed. Only a few hundred will be re-prosecuted.

“From numbers that we’re initially getting, about 95 percent of these tainted drug convictions will be dismissed,” said Carl Williams, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Massachusetts. “And that is a victory for regular people, for people who’ve been tarnished by these drug convictions.”

More than 7,800 cases in Suffolk County, which encompasses Boston, are expected to be dismissed. For many of these people, the damage is irreversible; those locked up for months or years have lost jobs, housing, and relationships. Families have suffered. Some people have even been deported. A MA personal injury lawyer can help you recover damages if your life was negatively impacted by Dookhan’s negligence and criminal behavior.

Wrongful Convictions

Compensating people for wrongful convictions is not only the right thing to do, it shows the public that the government is willing to make amends for its mistakes. The following statement is taken from the website of the Innocence Project, an organization that seeks to exonerate the wrongfully convicted: “Conceding that no system is perfect, the government’s public recognition of the harm inflicted upon a wrongfully convicted person helps to foster his healing process, while assuring the public that the government – regardless of fault – is willing to take ownership of its wrongs or errors.”

Most states, including Massachusetts, have a compensation statute, which compensates a wrongfully-convicted person for each year spent behind bars. When the compensation amounts were last updated under George W. Bush, the recommended amount was up to $50,000 per year. Based on inflation, that amount should now be approximately $63,000 per year. A Boston injury lawyer can help you determine how to move forward if you’ve been wrongfully convicted of a crime.

As a result of her actions, Dookhan was sentenced to three to five years imprisonment, and she was granted parole in 2016. Was justice served? Thousands of people’s lives have changed, and will continue to change as a result of the former chemist’s actions. Continue reading