Greater Boston Criminal Law Alerts

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.…

Medical experts can help a Massachusetts jury understand how an injury occurred and whether the medical findings support the prosecution’s account. The judge must first decide whether the opinion is reliable and whether its wording risks unfairly influencing the jury’s decision about guilt. On September 9, 2026, the Supreme Judicial Court addressed both questions in…

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…

Chapter 163 changes how Massachusetts courts and law enforcement address immigration status, civil detainers, bail, courthouse arrests, access to counsel in detention, and T- and U-visa certification requests. Its provisions take effect on different dates in 2026.