- Commonwealth v. A Juvenile, SJC-12395
The Supreme Judicial Court issued an amicus solicitation in this case on the following issues:
- Whether G. L. c. 119, § 72A, permits a Juvenile Court judge, who has dismissed an offense charged for lack of probable cause, to order a defendant to be tried in an adult court for lesser included offenses, where the lesser included offenses are supported by probable cause; and
- Whether, if the statute so permits, its application against this defendant would be unconstitutional for failure to have provided him with proper notice of the charges pending against him or the possibility of such a transfer.
The issue pertains to the procedure under G.L. c.119, §72A which permits the Commonwealth to prosecute someone who allegedly committed an offense when he or she was a juvenile but was not apprehended until they were an adult and as a result the case is allowed to be moved to adult court.
- Commonwealth v. Moses Collins, FAR-25684
CPCS submitted a letter in support of an Application for Further Appellate. The case is an eyewitness identification case, and the question presented is whether the victim should have been allowed to identify the defendant in court.
CPCS would advocate for a commonsense definition of an “unequivocal positive identification” that will protect clients against misidentification. Also signing on to the letter in support is The New England Innocence Project (NEIP) and Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL).