Trial and Error with Simone R. Bray

Same Commonwealth. Same county. Same judge. Same defense.Nowhere near the same amount of attention.Last month a Massachusetts court threw out Latarsha Sanders’ murder convictions and ordered a new trial, over the judge’s ruling to keep out all of her post-arrest mental health records. The original jury that convicted her of first degree murder was never shown the records documenting her severe mental illness.The facts of the case, what happened at trial, what the appeals court actually held, and why a conversation about maternal mental health that only reaches some mothers is not really about mental health at all.All in plain English. No law degree required. Get full access to Trial and Error with Simone R. Bray at htownlawyer.substack.com/subscribe

Seven days of deliberation. Eleven to one vote. One mistrial. About a thousand follow up questions.The one I keep getting most: Why didn’t the judge just swap in an alternate? There is a reason, and it is not the one most people assume.Then everything after that. What happens to those twelve people now that they have gone home? What happens to Lindsay Clancy tonight? Whether jeopardy already attached the second that jury was sworn, because if it did, how can they possibly do this again? Whether they even want to…. And if they do, whether the Commonwealth’s witnesses can simply tell it differently the second time around.I am a trial lawyer. I have stood in the same rooms. Let me walk you through what actually happens next, in plain English. No law degree required. Get full access to Trial and Error with Simone R. Bray at htownlawyer.substack.com/subscribe