Boston Criminal Lawyer Blog

The second trial of Former Harvard grad student Alexander Pring-Wilson began with opening statements on Wednesday. Pring-Wilson, now 29, was convicted of manslaughter three years ago for the 2003 stabbing death of 18-year-old Michael Colono.

A judge, however, ordered a retrial after the Massachusetts Judicial Supreme Court ruled in a different case that jurors should be given the opportunity to look at a victim’s violent history if it supports a defendant’s self-defense claim.

Pring-Wilson has always maintained that he acted in self-defense because Colono and his cousin, Samuel Rodriguez, were beating him up.

Rodriguez, however, has said that the former Harvard grad student repeatedly stabbed Colono with a Spyderco military folding knife for making fun of him. Pring-Wilson is accused of stabbing Colono 5 times in 70 seconds.

Details regarding Colono’s violent history were withheld during the last trial can now be revealed by the defense. Information that is now admissible includes Colono’s arrest for throwing money into a cashier’s face at a pizza place and destroying the restaurant’s glass door, as well as another arrest for allegedly assaulting subway passengers.

More details about Rodriguez’s criminal record and violent past will also be revealed to jury members. Domestic violence incidents, an attempt to knife his brother-in-law, and attacking a car rider after egging the motor vehicle are some of the incidents that are expected to be revealed by the defense.

On Wednesday, jury members toured the scene of the fight on Western Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

If the prosecution cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Alexander-Pring Wilson is guilty of the charges, then the jury must find him not guilty.

Retrial Starts For Former Harvard Student Charged In Stabbing Death, WCBV, November 7, 2007
Jury selected in Pring-Wilson retrial, Boston.com, November 6, 2007
Manslaughter Retrial Begins for Former Grad Student, Harvard Crimson, November 5, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Pring-Wilson Convicted of Manslaughter; Sentenced to 6-8 Years in State Prison (PDF)

Memorandum of Decision and Order on Defendant’s Motion for Relief from Judgment Pursuant to Mass. R. Crim P. 25 (B) (2), June 24, 2005 (PDF)

Justice for Alexander Pring-Wilson, Alexander Pring-Wilson.org Continue reading

The man charged with beating 78-year-old Robert J. Moore Sr. to death with a bat-like object reportedly has been suffering from mental health problems, says a missing report that his wife filed with police in Norwood last August.

41-year-old William B. Dunn was working as a contractor and installing a lawn sprinkler system at Moore’s home when an argument broke out between the two men and Dunn reportedly attacked the elderly homeowner. Moore sustained extensive head injuries. His daughter-in-law Nancy was hospitalized at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center because of injuries she sustained while trying to stop the attack. Her son, Jamie, who had been painting outside, found his mother bleeding on the basement floor.

Police searched for Dunn for hours after the murder. Schools were locked down for up two hours after classes ended. Dunn was captured in a marsh close to route Route 128. His arraignment is scheduled for Monday.

According to the missing person report, Dunn was voluntarily committed to the psychiatric ward of Norwood Caritas Carney Hospital. His wife filed the missing person report after he left the ward.

Moore’s slaying was the first homicide in Needham, Massachusetts since August 1989.

The Insanity Defense
The insanity defense is a plea that claims the defendant is not guilty of a crime because he or she does not have the mental capacity to know that what he or she did was wrong. The “irresistible impulse” defense-allowable in certain states, lets defendants claim that they knew they were committing a crime but they lacked the ability to stop themselves.

In Massachusetts, the effectiveness of the insanity defense in a criminal case can depend on whether the accused can determine between right and wrong when he or she committed the crime.

The American Psychiatric Association says that 80% of cases in which a defendant is found not guilty by reason of insanity are the result of a plea bargain between the defense and the prosecution.

Brutal slaying puts Needham into lockdown, Boston.com, November 3, 2007
Slay suspect had mental health problem, Boston.com, November 4, 2007

Related Web Resources:

Experts: Insanity pleas don’t often work, The Patriot-Ledger, March 12, 2005
Mental illness tough to prove in court, Post-Gazette, May 7, 2000 Continue reading

Anna Tang, a 20-year-old Wellesley College student is being held without bail following her arraignment today at Massachusetts’s Cambridge District Court in the stabbing of her ex-boyfriend, a 19-year-old student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tang is charged with home invasion and armed assault with intent to murder. The Middlesex district attorney’s office says that the MIT student woke up in his dorm room and found Tang stabbing him multiple times.

The couple had dated romantically several months and broke up three weeks ago. At that point, the relationship allegedly turned violent. Tang allegedly sent her ex-boyfriend threatening e-mails and then stabbed him this morning after breaking into his room. She was apprehended soon after. Her jacket was had blood all over it and she had a black folding back knife in the backpack she was carrying.

The victim is at local Boston hospital where he is being treated for his injuries.

Supporters of Tang have called her “meek and mild mannered.” Tang’s dangerousness hearing is scheduled for October 30.

Dangerousness Hearing
In Massachusetts, a dangerousness hearing is set up to determine whether letting a defendant out of jail on bail would be dangerous to others in the community. A large bail amount can be imposed if the person is considered dangerous. A judge can also order that a defendant be held without bail until the trial if there is no way to guarantee that others are safe if the defendant were set free. A person released on bail can also be remanded into custody until the trial if he or she violates any conditions of release.

In Massachusetts, a conviction of assault with the intent to murder means that the defendant acted with malice and actually intended to murder the victim. With this type of charge, the prosecution must prove that the defendant actually meant to commit murder. The maximum prison sentence for this type of crime is 10 years.

Wellesley student accused of stabbing former boyfriend at MIT, Boston.com, October 23, 2007
Related Web Resoures:
Enforcement of Orders; Criminal Proceedings, The Massachusetts Court System
Chapter 4. Criminal Complaints, MassLegalHelp.com Continue reading

The life sentence of a dying convicted killer has been vacated in Massachusetts because the judge that oversaw the case had closed the courtroom to the public during jury selection for the trial. US District Court Judge Nancy Gertner issued her decision after recently finding out that the Dwayne Owens’ right to a speedy and quick trial had been violated when federal Judge William G. Young cleared the courtroom of viewers so there could be space for the 72 potential jurors.

By making this portion of the jury selection process private, Judge Young violated Owens’ sixth amendment rights.

The Sixth Amendment of the Us Constitution’s Bill of Rights says that:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Owens, 44, had been convicted to life in prison for the 1992 Halloween murder of Rodney Belle. Owens, who is now confined at home and wears an electronic bracelet on Judge Gertner’s orders, has terminal lung cancer. It is uncertain whether Owens will be retried for the murder again because he is dying.

Belle, a father of five children who was 30 at the time of the slaying, was in Mattapan, Massachusetts when he was shot 21 times. 4 of the shots were fired directly into his head. According to federal prosecutors, Owens, a well-known New England cocaine czar at the time of the murder, thought Bell had set him up to have his drugs stolen.

Owens, who was convicted in 1997, had served 10 years of his life sentence.

Dying killer freed due to judge error, Boston Herald, October 22, 2007
Amendment VI, US Constitution: Bill of Rights, Cornell University Law School

Related Web Resources:

United States v. Dwayne Owens, Appellant, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Court
Drug kingpin may get new trial, Boston.com, April 14, 2007 Continue reading