- Doe No. 36870 v. Sex Offender Registry Board, No. 18-P-509
Request was sought and received permission to file an amicus letter in support of the defendant’s application for further appellate review. The issue in the case is whether a sex offense conviction in another jurisdiction is a like violation to a sex offense in Massachusetts. - Department of Revenue, Child Support Enforcement Division & Radelis Polanco v. Joshua Grullon, SJC-12784
The Children and Family Law Division sought and received permission to submit an amicus letter in support of the defendant’s brief. The issue in the case concerns the right to counsel for indigent litigants facing possible incarceration to civil contempt actions. The amicus letter would highlight that it is only indigent civil contemnors who are given the right to counsel and it is only civil indigent contemnors facing incarceration and not any other penalty. - Commonwealth v. Tykorie Evelyn, SJC-12808
This case is before the Supreme Judicial Court on interlocutory review of the denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress. The SJC issued the following amicus solicitation:- Whether, in all the circumstances of the case involving a street encounter between police officers and the defendant (a 17-year old African-American male), a seizure of the defendant occurred when a police officer exited his vehicle in pursuit of him after attempting to speak with him; and whether the moment of seizure should be determined from the perspective of a reasonable African-American boy. See Commonwealth v. Mata [483 Mass. 357 (2019)]).
- Whether the defendant’s behavior gave rise to reasonable suspicion that he was engaged in any crime when he was seized, where he was in the vicinity of a reported shooting and assumed a “bladed” stance (i.e., turned his body so as to keep one side further away from the police), and where the defendant’s expert witness testified that to date, there was no research showing that a “bladed” stance is a reliable indicator that a person is concealing a weapon.
- Whether the motion judge properly rejected expert testimony concerning “sterotype threat,” i.e., a person exhibiting certain behaviors or discomfort due to fear of being sterotyped in a negative way rather than due to consciousness of guilt.
The firm of Foley Hoag has agreed to write an amicus brief on behalf of CPCS and will focus on issues two and three.
- Commonwealth Lewis, 18-P-765
The Drug Lab Crisis Litigation Unit sought and received approval to submit an amicus letter in support of a petition for Further Appellate Review. The amicus letter will propose that the Supreme Judicial Court adopt a standard requiring motion judges to examine, in the plea context, the relationship between the tainted charge(s) and the conviction(s) in order to determine whether those conviction(s) were ancillary to the tainted charge(s). The standard that will be proposed will further indicate that where a motion judge finds that the tainted charge(s) drove the guilty plea, vacatur of ancillary convictions is required. - Impounded Case, SJC-12827
The Youth Advocacy Division sought and received permission to file an amicus brief. The Supreme Judicial Court issued the following amicus solicitation:- “Whether the Superior Court abused its discretion in granting a preliminary injunction to allow a student to return to high school after she was suspended for 112 days for possessing marijuana; including, whether the Superior Court erred in determining that a superintendent does not have the authority to designate another school administrator to conduct an appeal hearing and render a decision on an appeal of a long-term suspension or expulsion under G.L. c.71, s. 37H.”
The amicus brief will address two issues: 1) it would outline how the harsh punishment is inappropriate given the recent changes in Massachusetts around the use and distribution of marijuana; and 2) it would present an opportunity for the SJC to interpret the statute and cement the necessary due process protections available to students who have long term suspensions or expelled by a principal.