In the News

Zachary Lown, who represents Middlemiss, said the lawsuit should not be construed as an attack on an overburdened Parole Board.

“We need to get them more resources so more hearings can be held,” he said.

Lown represents Middlemiss, who he said takes full responsibility for killing a Lowell drug dealer in an attempted robbery in 2006, when Middlemiss was 20. Middlemiss now trains dogs and runs peer groups.

“He proved the SJC’s maxim that no judge can look at a child or an emerging adult and say they’re irreparably depraved,” Lown said.

“The informant system is essentially a black box,” said defense lawyer Zachary Lown, whose client that day was a new father with no criminal record who fought the case for six years. “Police withhold informant files from the prosecution meaning that even the prosecutor is kept in the dark. It is the only area of our law where guilt or innocence is at stake that lacks any checks or balances.”

Now that Summerville has laid down a marker, prosecutors will not be let off the hook so easily if similar circumstances unfold in other cases, suspects Boston criminal defense attorney Zachary P. Lown, who also attended the hearing.

“If there was any question as to whether the ADA’s office has an ethical obligation to report this or not, it is now crystal clear, and if they don’t, I think that the sanctions will be much more severe in the future,” he says.

Zachary Lown, a criminal defense attorney who practices in Roxbury and Dorchester, said prosecutors in those courts already move to divert those charged with drug possession and petty crimes into treatment or alternative programs.

Dismissing cases outright would help defendants avoid the stigma of a criminal record, Lown said.

“It’s impossible to get a job with a criminal record . . . or get an apartment or a place to live. It’s a moral issue,” Lown said.

“Whatever the pretense or tradition, Bannon’s invitation to Harvard normalizes racist, sexist, and homophobic ideas that are being promoted from the highest office in the land,” said organizer Zachary Lown, a Boston-based attorney who is not affiliated with Harvard. “This was a campaign that was largely built on racism and fear, and we don’t view that as a legitimate part of our public discussion.”

Over the three weeks, members of the group say they saw bail set in 16 cases. That concerns Zachary Lown, a defense attorney with Lown Law Firm in Boston. “Not only is it true that these cases are still being prosecuted,” he said, “but people are being put in jail without being convicted of any crime—for a crime the DA said they weren’t even going to prosecute.”

Judges routinely impose fines, court fees, and restitution costs on indigent defendants in Massachusetts. This guide and worksheet highlight relevant legal principles and are intended to help attorneys use the law to protect their clients from crushing court debt.

By Attorney Zachary Lown & Attorney Rebecca Kiley

The 150 yards between the District B-2 police station on Washington Street and Roxbury Municipal Court can be a lucrative walk for off-duty Boston Police officers looking to make a little overtime.

“The judges know, the prosecutors know, everyone in the courthouse knows that once [officers] are summonsed they can come in, they can check in to court and they can bill for going to court – for dropping off a piece of paper,” said Zachary Lown, a defense attorney in Boston.

"Everyone charged with a crime is protected by the presumption of innocence. The only legitimate purpose of bail is to determine an amount that will ensure a defendant comes back to court. Bail is not a tool to prejudge a defendant as guilty and jail that person until a trial."

The Massachusetts chapter of the National Lawyers Guild fully supports the Massachusetts Bail Fund in its policy of posting all bails regardless of the charges. Bail means pretrial liberty for the well-to-do and pretrial incarceration for those with modest resources. We cannot allow prosecutors to use high bails to avoid a constitutional dangerousness hearing, and we cannot allow freedom to depend on wealth. Thanks to the incredible work of the bail fund, defendants are actually realizing the promise of being innocent until proven guilty, and our judges and prosecutors are being forced to adhere to the law.