Massachusetts Could Loosen Life Without Parole Restrictions For Young People Justices in the state’s highest court are weighing whether it is unconstitutional to sentence people convicted of murder and aged 18 to 20 to life without parole. Ella Fassler
The State Convicted Him of Child Abuse. A Medical Expert Said It Was Likely Diaper Rash A man is serving two life sentences for a crime that, according to his legal team, never occurred. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
New Videos Show Massachusetts Cops Brutalizing George Floyd Protesters Over two nights last year, police in Boston and Worcester used excessive force—including pushing and tackling—while arbitrarily arresting protesters without apparent cause. Eoin Higgins
These Cops Lied In Court. But Since The D.A. Isn’t Keeping A Brady List, They Could Testify Again The case illustrates the importance of keeping lists of police officers with histories of misconduct or dishonesty, the defense lawyer in the case says. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
Law Schools’ Complicity On Racism Must Be Challenged This historical moment is crying out for a re-examination of our institutions, and law schools are no exception. Tyler Ambrose, Zarinah Mustafa, Sherin Nassar
Massachusetts Court Won’t Block Access To Reports On Who Boston Police May Have Targeted on Social Media District Attorney Rachael Rollins sought to block the disclosure of records that could show Boston police used Snapchat to target people who are Black or Latinx. Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg
The Suffolk County DA’s Attack On Public Defenders Was Misguided During a Boston radio show where Rachael Rollins accused defenders of harming Black and Brown communities, the DA demonstrated that she misunderstands the role that prosecutors play in the criminal legal system: caging those very people. Premal Dharia, Jullian Harris-Calvin
Missing Jail Data Hampers COVID-19 Release Efforts in Massachusetts The state’s law enforcement agencies failed to implement a 2018 data-sharing law. Now officials are struggling to identify high-risk people to release from county jails. Ethan Corey
Massachusetts Prosecutors Should Use Their Power To Dismiss Cases Now District attorneys in the state could decarcerate quickly by dropping unnecessary cases. Will Isenberg
Lawsuit Calls For Emergency Release of ICE Detainees in a Massachusetts County People held in Bristol County are ‘extremely agitated and panicking’ due to unsanitary conditions and overcrowding amid the coronavirus outbreak. Julia Rock, Sara Van Horn
Curbing COVID-19 Means A Moratorium On Unnecessary Arrests In Boston, it’s worse than business as usual at the police department as the pandemic spreads. On a recent day, officers arrested people for charges the district attorney has publicly declined to prosecute. Will Isenberg
ICE Protester to Face Trial in ‘Build the Wall’ Sheriff’s Massachusetts County Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who once offered prisoners at his jails as laborers to build the border wall, is one of many sheriffs who partners with the agency. Ella Fassler
Joe Kennedy III Says He Is Running A Progressive Senate Campaign. But He Worked For One Of The Most Regressive D.A.s In Massachusetts In his run for president, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has been forced to address his consulting past. Kennedy should do the same about his work. Will Isenberg
Massachusetts Prosecutors Are Using ‘Dangerousness’ Holds To Keep People Incarcerated Pretrial Advocates say that despite the election of several progressive prosecutors in the state, there’s a substantial increase in such detentions, which are stymieing gains made through policies to limit cash bail. Joshua Vaughn
The Appeal Podcast: The War on Drugs Continues In Family Court With Miriam Mack and Elizabeth Tuttle Newman of The Bronx Defenders Adam H. Johnson
Parents Threatened With Losing Children Over Cannabis Use Even in states where use is decriminalized, child welfare systems continue to treat it as a sign of neglectful parenting, particularly among families of color. Miriam Mack, Elizabeth Tuttle Newman
Pulling Back the Curtain on Boston’s ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ Most coverage of police raids targeting homeless people and substance users parroted official—and fraught—talking points. Jonathan Ben-Menachem
Drug Treatment Is Reaching More Prisons and Jails Recent legal victories have spurred counties and states to provide medication-assisted treatment to prisoners struggling with substance use. JB Nicholas
State Trooper Said Man Took Bag From Fentanyl Supplier, But Video Demonstrated That The Deal Never Went Down Trooper testimony inconsistent with video and misconduct among state and local law enforcement in New Hampshire and Massachusetts have caused at least 15 drug cases to unravel. Zachary A. Siegel
The ‘Failure to Appear’ Fallacy Prosecutors denounce bail reform efforts when people miss court dates, but ‘failure to appear’ rates obscure the fact that many who miss court aren’t on the run. Puck Lo, Ethan Corey
Boston’s New D.A. Pushes Back Against Prosecutors’ ‘Punishment-centric’ Point of View Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins’s promise to decline to prosecute several offenses is a rejection of the punitive tradition of prosecutors and perhaps signals a new kind of reform that spurns criminal justice as a solution to public health problems. John Pfaff
Immigrants Share Horror Stories From Inside Massachusetts’s ‘Worst’ Jail “Jail is not a country club,” the Bristol County sheriff said. “That’s why once you’ve done time in the Bristol County House of Corrections, you won’t want to come back.” Eoin Higgins
A Massachusetts District Attorney Tries To Crown His Successor In the Berkshire County DA race, the establishment is resorting to extreme measures to ensure it maintains power and avoids change. Eoin Higgins
What’s Said Is Not What’s Done: How Reagan-Era Drug Warrior Politics Dominate in Progressive Massachusetts — and What We Can Do About It. Kade Crockford
The Massachusetts Lab Scandals: Confronting the New Normal of Mass Error in Criminal Justice Jennifer Laurin
