Criminal Law

As Senate Chair of the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee, it is my top personal priority to lighten the footprint of the criminal justice system on communities of color. Even in Massachusetts, where I believe that most police leaders take an enlightened approach to community policing — certainly, our own police chief and District Attorney Ryan do — the New Jim Crow is a real problem.

In 2013, the legislature created a commission to study “the most reliable protocols for assessing and managing the risk of recidivism of sex offenders.” Our goal is to make recommendations that will better protect the public from dangerous people, while being fair to offenders who pose little risk. The subject is difficult and emotional and we are trying to proceed in a step-by-step way to gather a full understanding of the subject before we reach any conclusions about public policy.

Senator Brownsberger is chairing a legislatively-created Special Commission to Reduce the Recidivism of Sex Offenders. Here is information about the Commission, its legislative charge, and meeting agendas and minutes.

The Governor has approved the House-Senate agreement on a new sentencing structure for juveniles convicted of first degree murder.

The Senate has acted on Senate 2246, which is intended to respond to the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in the Diatchenko case.

Before the legislature is the question of how to respond to the case of Commonwealth v. Diatchenko. In that case, our Supreme Judicial Court found that it is unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life without parole for first degree murder. The basic question the legislature needs to answer is what should be the first …

Continue reading “Reading the Juvenile Life without Parole Cases”