Articles Posted in Murder

Friday, the hearing continues in Salem Superior Court. It is a hearing on a motion to suppress statements in the murder case of Philip Chism (hereinafter, the “Defendant”). The Defendant has been charged with the rape and murder of Danvers teacher Colleen Ritzer.

The hearing began last week and we began discussing the matter in terms of Constitutional Rights, Miranda and the making of statements to law enforcement while in custody.

The defendant is claiming that both he and his mother attempted to invoke is right to counsel and that, under the circumstances, law enforcement did not adhere to their duty to comply. As a result, the defense claims that any statements he made where in voluntary and so should not be able to be used by the Commonwealth at trial.

“Phase One” of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, hereinafter, the “Defendant” ‘s jury trial for, among other things, multiple murder continues in Boston’s Federal District Court. The Defendant is accused of carrying out bombings with his now-deceased brother near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013. Three people were killed in the bombing. More than 260 others were injured. Also, the Defendant stands charged with the killing of an MIT police officer days after the bombings. His brother died in connection with that killing.

Our representatives desire to have the Defendant join with his brother. While some might have expected the matter to be tried in state court, it is being brought to trial in federal court.

The reason is fairly simple. Massachusetts’ state criminal justice system does not have a death penalty. The federal criminal justice system does.

…And so it begins.

A new year. A new high profile multi-murder, among other criminal charges of course, trial.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) is having what will serve as his “day in court”.

This past weekend was a bad one for law enforcement. In two different states, police officers were murdered by suspects.

In Brooklyn, New York, two police officers were sitting in their patrol car when a man who officials claim had come from Baltimore vowing to kill police officers made good that vow.

He had made statements on social media suggesting that he planned to kill police officers and was angered about the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases.

It is the next act in a drama which came to pubic attention in 2012.

In 2002, there was a deadly national outbreak of fungal meningitis. The outbreak was linked to steroid injections from a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. Owners of the pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center (Hereinafter, “NECC”), were among those just arrested in connection with the disaster.

The United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tied 751 cases across 20 states to the steroid injections. A total of 64 people died as a result.

Last night, we saw Round Two of Boston protests regarding what seems to be a rash of what we have been discussing over the past few blogs. Namely, instances of police killing citizens and, seemingly, nothing happening about it.

Allegations of homicide abound.

But not charged.

We have been discussing the Ferguson matter in which an unarmed young black man was fired upon (multiple times) by a police officer. The young man died from the wounds and many are saying that the officer committed a homicide. Despite the fact that testimony presented to the grand jury told different tales ranging from a description of a cold blooded murder to a shooting in valid self-defense, the grand jury found that there was no probable cause to believe that the officer should be formally charged with a crime. Any crime.

I am hoping that I am not insulting your intelligence by suggesting to you that allegations of police excessive, sometimes deadly, force is not terrible unusual. Usually, the officer or officers involved are not prosecuted.

Take the small central California city of Salinas, for example. Within a period of 11 days, two such incidents recently happened.

Former New York state Chief Judge Sol Wachtler famously remarked that a prosecutor could persuade a grand jury to “indict a ham sandwich.” Raw data, as well as the experiences of those regularly involved with the criminal justice system can attest to this. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. attorneys prosecuted 162,000 federal cases in 2010, the most recent year for which we have data. Grand juries declined to return an indictment in 11 of them.

“If the prosecutor wants an indictment and doesn’t get one, something has gone horribly wrong,” adds Andrew D. Leipold, a University of Illinois law professor who has written critically about grand juries. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Cases involving police shootings, however, appear to be an exception. It would appear, at least from media accounts, that grand juries frequently decline to indict law-enforcement officials.

Here is hoping you had a great Thanksgiving. Here’s hoping you enjoy “Black Friday”. And here is a story that contains nothing for you to enjoy or be happy about.

As you no doubt have heard from various sources, the grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., has returned its decision regarding the death of the late18-year-old Michael Brown and the allegations against Police Officer Darren Wilson. You have no doubt also heard about the aftermath which included protests in various locations including Ferguson and Boston.

The Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog has certain insights into these events that you may not have realized. Some of them are from knowledge of the criminal justice system. Some are from my experience of so many years as a criminal defense attorney.

Well, I suppose you have to give it to Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan and his office. They apparently “never say die” and may actually believe in the third time is the charm theory.

Cara Rintala (hereinafter, the “Defendant”) was charged for the murder of her wife back in March, 2010. The case went to trial. The jury could not reach a unanimous decision of either “guilty” or “not guilty”. So, the Commonwealth took the case to trial again. They got the same result. A hung jury.

Finally, the Defendant brought a motion to dismiss the case rather than sit through another jury trial.