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Posts Tagged ‘criminal defense attorney’

The death-penalty sentence for Gary Sampson, as a result of convictions for multiple murders in 2001, has been reversed and a new sentencing trial has been ordered because a juror lied when answering a jury form.

A Mere Technicality?

The juror, identified only as “C,” failed to truthfully answer several questions on a jury questionnaire. During the jury selection process, she failed to disclose that she had been the victim of domestic violence and that her husband had in fact threatened her with a rifle. The juror failed to reveal many circumstances and experiences that would otherwise have disqualified her participation as a juror in the trial.

Read the full story here:  Death Sentence Overturned on Juror Misconduct

In Melendez–Diaz v. Massachusetts, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a chemical test report submitted by a state laboratory analyst is testimonial in nature. As a result, in all criminal prosecutions, the Commonwealth must call the analyst who tested the substance to testify in court that the substance in fact is an illegal drug.

The analyst’s presence is necessary to satisfy the requirements of the Confrontation Clause of the Constitution.

Read the full article here:  http://www.davidyannetti.com/CM/Articles/Confrontation-Clause-Ruling-To-Be-Applied-Prospectively-Only.asp

On October 18, 2010, United States District Court Chief Justice Mark L. Wolf sentenced Nicholas Djokich to 20 years in a federal penitentiary for his role in a 2008 international kidnapping and murder-for-hire plot. As a result, Djokich will not be eligible for parole until 2026, when he will be 76 years old. Djokich was represented by the firm of Denner Pellegrino in Boston, Massachusetts.

Djokich, 60, is a Canadian national who was arrested in the United States in 2008 on charges of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. The target of his plot was Attorney Richard DeVries, a lawyer from the Bahamas. Djokich believed that DeVries had swindled him out of millions of dollars in a fraudulent investment scheme. Djokich therefore hatched a plan to send a hit man to the Bahamas to pressure DeVries into paying the money back. Djokich told the hit man that he would not mind if, after DeVries was forced to pay the money, the hit man “took DeVries fishing and he never came back.”

The “hit man” Djokich hired, however, was actually an undercover police officer from Boston, M.B.T.A. Detective Peter Pasciucco.

Read the rest of the article at:  http://www.davidyannetti.com/CM/Articles/DeAngelis-notguilty-trial.asp

David Yannetti, was selected to present his much-lauded closing argument from the  1998 Jeffrey Curley murder trial at the 2008 “Battle of the Lawyers” event.

Yannetti, a Boston-based criminal defense attorney, has spent the past 10 years establishing himself as one of the most preeminent defense lawyers in Massachusetts. Before opening his law office in 1999, Yannetti served as a prosecutor in Middlesex County. His experience on both sides of the aisle gives him unique insight and he has been designated numerous times as an outstanding attorney.

The Battle of the Lawyers is a yearly event in which distinguished lawyers from around Massachusetts recreate closing arguments from past notable trials. In 1998, Yannetti’s closing in the Jeffrey Curley case sealed convictions for both murderers and continues to be highly regarded in the legal community.

Read the full story:  Attorney Yannetti Slated to Compete in “Battle of the Lawyers”