Articles Posted in Massachusetts Criminal Law Updates | Serpa Law Office

Apple Watch AI, AirPods, Meta glasses, and other wearables can process conversations without saving ordinary audio. Massachusetts wiretap law may still apply.

On September 4, 2026, a Plymouth County jury reported that it could not agree, and the court declared a mistrial in the case against Lindsay Clancy. On September 10, 2026, the defense filed a renewed motion for a required finding of not guilty. The motion asks the court, not a second jury, to end the…

Massachusetts held its state primary on Tuesday, September 1, 2026. By the next morning the district attorney contests in Suffolk and Middlesex counties were decided. The Norfolk County contest was close to decided. The district attorney is the elected official who decides whether and how the Commonwealth prosecutes a case once it is in court.…

Lindsay Clancy, a labor and delivery nurse from Duxbury, was tried in Plymouth Superior Court in 2026 on three counts of murder in the first degree for the January 2023 deaths of her children, Cora, age five, Dawson, age three, and Callan, age eight months. She did not dispute that she caused their deaths. Her…

Police misconduct sometimes comes to light years after a defendant has pleaded guilty. When that happens, the defendant may ask the court to withdraw the plea. Success depends on connecting the misconduct to that specific case, not merely showing that it occurred somewhere in the investigation. On August 31, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court applied…

Massachusetts law does not permit a trial judge to remove a deliberating juror merely because the other eleven jurors believe that person is wrong. Once deliberations begin, the judge may discharge a juror only after a hearing establishes an emergency, another compelling reason, or a demonstrated inability to perform the duties of a juror. Disagreement…

An arrest after the alleged filming of jurors in the Lindsay Clancy trial raises separate questions under the witness-intimidation, evidence-tampering, contempt, and wiretap laws. This analysis applies each rule without presuming the allegations are true.

A driver who refuses the breathalyzer after an arrest faces an OUI prosecution without a breath result from the certified device. When the case contains no separate hospital or independent blood-alcohol result, the Commonwealth must prove impairment through the driving, the officer’s observations, statements, video, roadside exercises, and conduct at booking. The refusal itself cannot…

The Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court issued ten criminal decisions between July 29 and August 26, 2026. Several change how a pending case is litigated in the District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Superior Court, and two of them order new trials. This survey states what each court held and explains…

Learn when Massachusetts courts may admit Adjutant first-aggressor evidence, what notice Rule 14.3 requires, and how the prosecution may respond.