There are two trials right now in Boston that are riveting those who live here as well as people across the country. In the US District Court on Boston’s waterfront, […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Baker taps Worcester prosecutor as public safety secretary
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Wednesday called his pick for state public safety chief a “proven manager” as top House lawmakers welcomed the choice of a Worcester […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Big Brother is watching
As the search continues for the gunman who killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning, surveillance video is playing an enormous role in the effort to identify and track the suspect. We’re reposting a CommonWealth story from 2015 that looked at the growing role of surveillance video in law enforcement.
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
A rising awareness of police shootings
Another non-indictment in an officer-involved death. Another fatal shooting involving a police officer and an unarmed man, this time in Phoenix. Incidents such as those are playing out around the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Boston police resist peer pressure on body cameras
As police forces across the country start saying “yes” to body cameras, can Hub police continue to equivocate? The Boston Globe finds that State Police are working on a body camera […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care, State House News Service
Westminster tobacco ban stirs outrage
Don’t even think about prying cigarettes from their cold, dead hands. The right to smoke, or more properly, the right to consume legal products has roiled Westminster for weeks. The […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Judge wants O’Brien, Tavares near homes
US District Court Judge William Young, who last week sentenced former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and his top deputy Elizabeth Tavares to surprisingly lenient prison sentences, has endorsed their requests […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Panel: End mandatory minimum drug sentences
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Tackling an issue that could re-emerge in the Legislature over the next two years, a special commission studying the state’s criminal justice system recommended eliminating mandatory […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Ruling increases O’Brien prison time
A federal judge said on Thursday that John O’Brien’s prison time will be significantly increased because the convicted former Probation commissioner “abused a position of public trust.” O’Brien was convicted […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Herald drops libel appeal, to pay $903,000
The Boston Herald dropped its appeal and agreed to pay $903,000 to end a libel case stemming from a 2009 story alleging that a woman engaged in “sexual acts” with […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Former IG: Coakley cool to DiMasi probe
Attorney General Martha Coakley’s campaign manager Tim Foley issued a press release at 4:13 p.m. Sunday criticizing my answers to questions posed to me by Boston Globe reporters David Scharfenberg […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Top judge urges end to mandatory drug sentences
The state’s top judge is calling on the Legislature to end mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions, saying the fixed punishments fall disproportionately on minorities, give too much power to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, Transportation
Boston’s data doldrums
The Globe reports today that nobody in Boston City Hall or in the state’s transportation bureaucracy knows whether Boston streets are models of safety or hotbeds of carnage because Boston […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
When cops kill, silence can be deadly
If the fatal shooting in Missouri last weekend of 18-year-old Michael Brown was simply about a police officer’s use of deadly force, it would be like most of the estimated 400 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
Gun bill compromise a distinction without a difference
[Earlier this week, Matthews authored a lengthy Voices piece for CommonWealth laying out an argument against giving police chiefs discretion in issuing Firearm Identification Cards for rifles and shotguns. View […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
“Discretionary” firearms licensing a risky move
In response to the shooting tragedies in Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado, and after many months of policy study, House Speaker Robert DeLeo introduced new firearms legislation. Public hearings were […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Police chiefs, activists rip Senate on gun bill
Standing in front of phalanx of more than a dozen Massachusetts police chiefs, gun-control activist John Rosenthal called out the state Senate this morning for giving in to pressure from […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
The politics of guns
Beacon Hill moved closer to passing a new gun control law on Thursday, but not before once again scaling back the proposed legislation to appease the concerns of firearm owners […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Tweaked gun bill sails through House
After accepting some changes to his proposed legislation, House Speaker Robert DeLeo pushed a gun violence bill through the House on a 111-37 vote. The House’s deliberations were unusual in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care, Politics, State House News Service
Mass. prison spending ranked 7th in US
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Massachusetts trailed only six states in per-inmate spending on prison health care in 2011 as an aging population contributed to the growing cost of care for […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
Criminalizing politics
US District Court Judge William Young keeps telling the jurors in the trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two of his top aides that the case is not […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hearing on DeLeo’s gun bill draws a crowd
Supporters and opponents packed a State House hearing on Tuesday afternoon on House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s recently-filed bill aimed at reducing gun violence in the Commonwealth. The bill, which aims […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Back Story
Welder at Back Bay fire cited before for no permit
A Malden welding company being sued for failing to obtain a city permit for work that spawned a fatal, nine-alarm Back Bay fire in March has apparently operated before without […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
The limits of grief on the gun control debate
Can the University of California Santa Barbara/Isla Vista massacre change the way the US thinks about guns? In a word, no. The demand by Richard Martinez, grieving father of one […]
