With all due respect to my fellow professionals, I sometimes think that if you would read the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog more often and take its message to heart…maybe we would not be looking back and saying “Whoops” so often. The jury came back last week in the New Jersey…
Before we go into other reasons that a defendant may decide not to testify, there is one thing I should make clear. Whether or not to testify is nobody’s decision than the defendant himself. It is not the decision of the defense attorney, nor the judge and certainly not the…
This week, we have discussed the endings of a few high-profile criminal trials. We discussed the New Jersey Rutgers Cyber-Bullying case, the Mattapan Massacre Murder case and a homicide retrial in Lawrence. All three trials had something in common. The defendants did not testify. The issue of a criminal defendant…
The juries in the Mattapan Massacre and Rutgers cyber-bullying/hate crime trials are deliberating, they are not the only ones. The wheels of Justice grind on…for better or for worse…every day. In Lawrence Superior Court, for example,another jury deliberates. The jury is the second to hear this case. It is the…
Sometimes this Boston criminal lawyer has to just chuckle, look down and shake his head. So many things in the criminal justice system are predictable. And yet, we, as a society, seem never to learn. Or is it simply that we do not care? Two local criminal justice stories dominated…
So…as the attorneys, parties, judge and jury rest up this weekend and get ready to final arguments, charge from the judge and jury deliberations, the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog finishes this four-part discussion about this case in terms of credibility. Primarily, the credibility of a witness like Kimani Washington (hereinafter,…
Along with the Mattapan Massacre trial, another matter involving death is reaching the climax of its trial This one is from New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is the trial of Dharun Ravi (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). This was a matter that also hit the headlines when it took place. The would-be…
The topic the Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has been discussing over the past couple of days dovetails nicely with something we discussed last week. The bottom line connection? Credibility. A witness’ credibility and the credibility of the attorney who calls that witness to the stand. The jury in the Mattapan…
Here I am….bringing you bad news again. The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog is saddend to tell you that you have been involved in a shooting. You and a few others went to try to conduct a simple robbery, but it did not go as smoothly as planned. You all had…
As you probably know, the trial about he so-called “Mattapan Massacre” has been going on in Boston’s Suffolk Superior Court. The case involves a multiple homicide in which four people including a 2-year-old boy were killed and a fifth man was shot but survived. The event took place on September…