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AI Deepfakes in Massachusetts Schools: The April 2026 DESE Guidance and a Student’s Criminal Exposure On April 15, 2026, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education issued guidance directing Massachusetts schools to respond to AI-generated deepfake images and videos of students. The guidance arrived against a criminal framework the Legislature completed in 2024: St. 2024, c. 118 added the distribution of explicit images, expressly including computer-generated images, to G. L.…

Commonwealth v. Watson: Postconviction Digital Forensic Analysis of Cell Phones Under G. L. c. 278A 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 argued that the statute covers only scientific testing of physical evidence for biological material. The…

Cross-Examining an Absent Accuser: Excited Utterances, Spontaneous Utterances, and Section 806 in a Massachusetts Domestic Violence Trial Some of the hardest fought Massachusetts domestic violence cases I try are the ones where the accuser never takes the stand. The person who called 911 recants, refuses to appear, or has reconciled and wants the case gone. The Commonwealth does not always drop those cases. It tries to prove them through the recording and…