top of page
THE CHARGE | BLOG
The Charge is a blog that talks about the intersection of history and law. Please feel free to read, leave nice comments about how much you love it, share with your friends, colleagues, and people you don't even like who might appreciate it.
100 Years Ago, Leopold and Loeb Killed Bobby Franks
1924 Chicago was no stranger to crime. The year started with Jenny Plarr being shot to death by two intoxicated police officers. Then,...
Victoria L. Nadel
May 27, 20245 min read
Innocence Is Irrelevant: 20th Anniversary Edition
It was such a straightforward and simple case. Everyone agreed about the mistake. In 1997, Michael Wayne Haley stole a calculator from a...
Victoria L. Nadel
May 6, 20246 min read
Where Are We With Criminal Forfeiture? Two Recent Cases.
Both the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts recently interpreted statutes related to...
Victoria L. Nadel
Apr 29, 20246 min read
Pay Your Taxes: A Cautionary Tale
For most of the country, it’s Tax Day. It’s not Tax Day in Massachusetts because we are special, so we have until Wednesday at midnight...
Victoria L. Nadel
Apr 15, 20246 min read
Does Remand Mean Retry?
You get convicted of murder, a life felony, at trial (boo!) You take your case on appeal (which, in Massachusetts skips the intermediary...
Victoria L. Nadel
Apr 10, 20246 min read
There Oughta Be A Law
The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts must take further review and overturn Commonwealth v. Martinez, 2024 WL 1335265 (March 29,...
Victoria L. Nadel
Apr 1, 202410 min read
By The Seat of One's Pants
It’s hard to imagine it now, but fifty years ago, lots and lots of Americans were deeply offended by people wearing images of the United...
Victoria L. Nadel
Mar 25, 20246 min read
Eats, Shoots and Leaves - SCOTUS Edition
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why?" asks the confused...
Victoria L. Nadel
Mar 18, 202410 min read
Pressed to Death
Freedom of the press is essential to democracy – it is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and it is a...
Victoria L. Nadel
Mar 11, 20246 min read
Supreme Thoughts of Commerce - Early Republic Edition
The Constitution, famously, did not mention slavery. But it did acknowledge “the peculiar institution” not only in apportionment of...
Victoria L. Nadel
Feb 26, 20247 min read
If This Be Treason
In a fiery speech, the only kind he knew how to make, Patrick Henry railed against the Stamp Act in 1765 declaring that Caesar had his...
Victoria L. Nadel
Feb 19, 20246 min read
Exhausted
There were a lot of questions posed in oral argument last week in Trump v. Anderson. In this well-prepared and well-argued case, a lot of...
Victoria L. Nadel
Feb 12, 20249 min read
The Persistent Problem of Unreliable Witnesses
Recent notions of police misconduct conjure up the faces of those killed by police. Modern technology has allowed or these crimes by cops...
Victoria L. Nadel
Feb 5, 20245 min read
Early Courtship
As Benjamin Franklin and his Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery was polishing up its petition to the first Congress...
Victoria L. Nadel
Jan 29, 20246 min read
You Have No Right To Remain Silent
The three men who sat in the seat on the Supreme Court of the United States prior to its current embarrassment were giants – true giants...
Victoria L. Nadel
Jan 22, 20246 min read
Immune from Prosecution? No.
In a recent oral argument, an attorney averred that in order to be prosecuted criminally for acts done while president of the United...
Victoria L. Nadel
Jan 15, 20246 min read
Ballot Box Burden
First - a little background before introducing the case observing its golden anniversary this week. Criminal syndicalism advocates for...
Victoria L. Nadel
Jan 8, 20245 min read
Opinionated
Going back 100 years, it is interesting to note the outsized influence of Massachusetts on the national stage at that time – the...
Victoria L. Nadel
Jan 1, 20245 min read
The Night Before Christmas (1865)
In early April, 1865, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. As a technical matter, the war raged on for more than a year,...
Victoria L. Nadel
Dec 25, 20235 min read
Spilling the Tea
It was 250 years ago that colonists from Massachusetts dressed in disguise, boarded the Dartmouth, and dumped East India Tea into Boston...
Victoria L. Nadel
Dec 18, 20235 min read
bottom of page