Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

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Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the John Adams Courthouse (2008)

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the supreme court of the American state of Massachusetts . The SJC is based in Boston in the John Adams Courthouse . He is regarded as the oldest, meeting Court of Appeal of the United States.

organization

The SJC is composed of a Supreme State Judge and six judges.

history

When the Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony were combined into a crown colony , the judicial organization had to be adjusted in 1692. Against this background, the Superior Court of Judicature was created , from which the SJC emerged in 1780. From 1894 the SJC met in the John Adams Courthouse , which is named after the second President of the United States . For reasons of space, the court moved from 1939 to premises in the neighboring New Suffolk County Courthouse . In 2005 the SJC returned to the fully restored and renovated John Adams Courthouse .

A historically significant trial that took place here concerned the Boston massacre in 1770. From October of the same year, this event was dealt with in three separate trials before the Superior Court of Judicature . As a trial lawyer for Captain Thomas Preston, a member of the British Army served, inter alia John Adams and Josiah Quincy II , while Robert Treat Paine , the prosecution represented. This constellation also resulted in the other two proceedings, which ended in acquittal for Preston and six soldiers. Only the private Kilroy and Montgomery were found guilty of manslaughter and branded on the right thumb.

The most famous trial of the SJC in the 20th century was the trial against Sacco and Vanzetti . This negotiated in 1926 under the presidency of Judge Arthur P. Rugg her appeal against the judgment of Dedham .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Willrich: Pox: An American History . Penguin, New York City 2011, ISBN 978-1-101-47622-2 , p. 155
  2. ^ Alice Eichholz: Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources (3rd edition). Ancestry Publishing, Provo (UT) 2004, ISBN 1-59331-166-4 , p. 316
  3. ↑ John Adams Courthouse on Massachusetts Court System, Mass.gov
  4. ↑ Ron Christenson (Ed.): Political Trials in History: From Antiquity to the Present . Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick (NJ) 1991, ISBN 0-88738-406-4 , pp. 40-42
  5. ^ Alan Rogers: Murder and the Death Penalty in Massachusetts . University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst (MA) 2008, ISBN 978-1-55849-633-0 , p. 169

literature

  • Massachusetts legal history: a journal of the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society . Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, 1997-2006 annual, ISSN 1092-5880

Coordinates: 42 ° 21 '33.5 "  N , 71 ° 3' 39.4"  W.