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Criminal Law And Procedure, Henry Paul Monaghan

Faculty Scholarship

§12.1 Introduction. The recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court in the area of criminal procedure have begun to have a considerable impact upon litigation in the Massachusetts courts; indeed, for at least the second successive year the major emphasis of the Supreme Judicial Court's criminal law opinions centered upon considerations of "criminal due process." On the whole, the Court demonstrated an admirable concern for protecting the requirements of a fair trial. However, in at least two significant areas its decisions are open to considerable question: (1) in a series of opinions the Court confined the admittedly unclear …