Democracy Is on the Ballot: One Party Defends It, The Other Would Let It Die

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost, Associate Dean of the Faculty, and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College—explains why the 2020 Democratic National Convention was unlike any other political gathering in American history for reasons beyond its virtual platform. Sarat argues that the future of American democracy lies in the balance, and when we vote in November, it will be up to us whether democracy lives or dies.

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Commonwealth v. Lopez

Docket: SJC-12007

Opinion Date: August 20, 2020

Judge: Budd

Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of murder in the first degree on a theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty, holding that there was no error that resulted in a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice. Specifically, the Supreme Court held (1) Defendant's statements that he made to police were properly admitted into evidence; (2) the trial judge did not err in finding that text messages sent after the murder were admissible; (3) the trial judge did not err in admitting a redacted version of the videotaped custodial interrogation of Defendant; (4) the trial judge did not err in declining to instruct the jury on involuntary manslaughter; (5) the trial judge did not err in denying Defendant's postconviction motion for a new trial; and (6) there was no reason to order a new trial or reduce the degree of guilt under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E.