Greater Boston Criminal Law Alerts

Not every Massachusetts OUI case begins with an arrest. When a driver is identified after a collision, interviewed at a hospital, or found beside a parked vehicle and sent home, the charge often arrives days later as a citation in the mail. That difference changes the first stage of the case entirely. A driver charged…

Three decisions recur in nearly every Massachusetts criminal trial: which evidence to challenge before the jury hears it, when to object once the testimony begins, and how to attack the sufficiency of the Commonwealth’s proof. Each decision has a settled legal framework, and each carries preservation consequences that fix the standard of review on appeal.…

In a Massachusetts criminal trial, counsel address the jury twice without a witness on the stand: in the opening statement before any evidence is offered, and in the closing argument after both sides rest. Different rules govern the two moments. An opening is a preview, confined to what counsel reasonably expects the evidence to show.…

Jury selection in a Massachusetts criminal trial is governed by G. L. c. 234A, by Rule 20 of the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure, and by Supreme Judicial Court decisions that have changed substantially over the past decade. Counsel who last selected a Superior Court jury before 2015 will find the questioning transformed: attorneys now…

A Massachusetts criminal case that ends without a conviction still produces a record. The dismissal, the nolle prosequi, or the acquittal remains in the court file, in the probation records, and in the criminal offender record information system until it is sealed or expunged. The remedies differ in kind. A sealed record continues to exist…

In Massachusetts, courts make separate determinations about bail and pretrial detention for dangerousness at the beginning of a criminal case. Bail under G.L. c. 276, §§ 57 and 58 addresses whether personal recognizance, release conditions, or an amount of bail will reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance in court. A dangerousness hearing under G.L. c. 276,…

The continuance without a finding is central to District Court and Boston Municipal Court practice. Under G. L. c. 278, § 18, a defendant admits that the Commonwealth’s evidence would support a finding of guilty, the court declines to enter that finding, and the case is continued on conditions to a specific date, at which…

The Supreme Judicial Court and the Appeals Court issued a steady run of criminal decisions in July 2026, and defense counsel will rely on several of them in motions to suppress, evidentiary objections, and abuse prevention hearings in the District Court and the Boston Municipal Court. This survey is the first in a monthly series…

In a Massachusetts prosecution that begins with a motor vehicle stop, the motion to suppress is often the filing that decides the case. Firearms, drug, and operating under the influence charges typically rest on what the police saw and seized in the minutes after the blue lights came on, and each item of evidence depends…

The Massachusetts Appeals Court has vacated a domestic violence conviction because of the prosecutor’s closing argument. In Commonwealth v. Pena, No. 24-P-0970 (Mass. App. Ct. July 24, 2026), the court set aside a Boston Municipal Court jury verdict for assault and battery on a family or household member, holding that a closing argument that vouched…