Articles Posted in Massachusetts Criminal Decisions

In Commonwealth v. Gordon (2025), applying Smith v. Arizona, the Supreme Judicial Court held that a substitute analyst may not testify to an opinion that depends on the truth of an absent analyst\u2019s testimonial statements. Here is what that means for forensic proof in drug cases.

Bruen did not end Massachusetts firearm licensing. In 2025 the Supreme Judicial Court upheld the current resident and nonresident licensing schemes and confirmed that unlicensed carrying remains a crime. Here is what visitors, travelers, and new residents need to know.

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On June 2, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Grimaldi, SJC-13842, and answered a question that Massachusetts sobriety checkpoint cases have raised since troopers began wearing body cameras: can the Commonwealth use bodycam recordings of a driver’s field…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On July 9, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Watson, SJC-13850 (July 9, 2026), and held that G. L. c. 278A, the postconviction forensic and scientific analysis statute, permits digital forensic analysis of cell phones. The Commonwealth had…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On April 15, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Arias, SJC-13816, and gave Massachusetts a rule it did not have before: when police stop a car for a traffic violation they observed earlier, the elapsed time between the…

Attorney Joe Serpa is a Georgetown University Law Center graduate who has practiced Massachusetts criminal defense since 1995. On November 25, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in Gravito v. Commonwealth, No. SJC-13705 (Mass. Nov. 25, 2025), that M.G.L. c. 276, § 100C permits a defendant and appellate counsel to obtain the defendant’s own…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On May 7, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court decided Commonwealth v. Chhieng, and it matters to every noncitizen who ever resolved a Massachusetts criminal case with a plea or an admission. The court held that the immigration warning many District…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 Massachusetts firearms owners face two separate compliance deadlines in October 2026, and much of the confusion in circulation comes from running them together. Under 501 CMR 20.00, the regulation implementing M.G.L. c. 140, § 121C, every firearm, frame, or receiver…