News, Pleadings
David Nathanson
Public Trial Amicus Brief

On March 6, 2017, Attorney Wood and a team of attorneys from Ropes & Gray filed a brief in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Weaver v. Massachusetts, No. 16-240. They argue that the Court should not shy away from vindicating the treasured right to a public trial. The government's argument that vindicating the right to a public trial would "open up the floodgates" is both factually incorrect and diverts attention from the real issue: whether our Constitution entitles everyone to a public trial. Read the brief here.

DYS

Prosecutors Cannot Manipulate Court Schedules to Punish Juveniles Longer

On April 11, 2022 Attorney Caroline Alpert convinced the Supreme Judicial Court to ban the prosecutorial practice of manipulating continuances past a juvenile’s eighteenth birthday for the sole purpose of obtaining more punishment. If a juvenile is sentenced while seventeen or younger, Massachusetts statutes prohibit punishing (“rehabilitating”) them beyond their eighteenth birthday. If sentenced after their eighteenth birthday, they can be committed to DYS until nineteen. Some Massachusetts prosecutors were moving to continue sentencing past the juvenile’s eighteenth birthday in order obtain longer commitments. The SJC prohibited this kind of manipulation, requiring prosecutors to prove by clear and convincing evidence at an evidentiary hearing that continued commitment is “necessary for the rehabilitation of the juvenile.” Read the opinion here.