The Massachusetts Appeals Court preserved trial-judge discretion to allow a detective’s account of a Spanish interview for rebuttal without an English transcript.
The Massachusetts SJC ordered a new murder trial because excluding postarrest psychiatric records stripped the defendant’s criminal-responsibility defense of its medical foundation.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed a murder conviction, finding overwhelming evidence that thirteen shots were retaliatory rather than justified defense.
The Utah Court of Appeals vacated an aggravated-assault conviction for insufficient evidence but affirmed sexual-abuse and object-rape convictions.
The Utah Court of Appeals affirmed rape and forcible-sodomy convictions, holding that an ambiguous reference to counsel did not end police questioning.
The Superior Court held that a juvenile’s admission to misdemeanor drug possession did not permit an automatic delinquency adjudication without evidence of a need for treatment, supervision, or rehabilitation.
The Superior Court held that a passenger’s nod and glance toward his waistband, combined with a stolen plate and the surrounding circumstances, gave police reasonable suspicion for a Terry frisk.
The Court of Appeals read the form and surrounding record as showing an effective dismissal only of the habitual-felon matter, not the jury’s assault verdict. The trial court had expressly held sentencing open, so it retained authority to enter judgment on the assault conviction. Evidence that Lofton took a route requiring him to jump a fence and discarded clothing while officers pursued him supported the flight inst
The Court of Appeals found no reversible error. The trial judge acted within the broad discretion used to manage voir dire and questioning, including limited leading questions to a minor testifying about sexual abuse. The panel found no plain error in the challenged evidence and no gross impropriety requiring intervention during argument. Because evidence admitted without reversible error could be discussed in closin
The Court of Appeals upheld denial of suppression. Evidence in plain view could be seized where officers were lawfully present and its evidentiary significance was immediately apparent in the violent-crime investigation then underway. Relying on North Carolina precedent involving later comparison of lawfully obtained genetic material, the panel also held that secondary DNA analysis imposed no new physical intrusion a
The Superior Court held that Greenlight app transaction screenshots were machine-generated data rather than hearsay and upheld a juvenile theft adjudication.
The Superior Court upheld a caretaker’s convictions for theft by deception and financial exploitation of an older adult based on checks obtained beyond her agreed compensation.
The Superior Court held that towing a stolen truck, without evidence the driver knew it was stolen before police stopped him, did not establish a prima facie case of receiving stolen property.