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Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Herbert P. Wilkins, former chief justice of the state Supreme Judicial Court, dies at 95
'If you ask me who was the most significant chief justice certainly Herbert Wilkins would be a standout,' she said. 'I say that not only in the Commonwealth, but nationwide. He was an extraordinary man.' Justice Wilkins, who also was committed to public service on community boards and with influential legal organizations before and after his years on the bench, was 95 when he died Tuesday at home in Concord. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up In rulings and in private conversations, Justice Wilkins was known for his brevity and clarity. His humor was also often present, even on the bench. Advertisement A 'Wilkins ruling' had certain hallmarks, said 'It's brief, it's concise, it says what it means to say,' she said of his opinions, which he wrote from draft to finish. His clerks submitted memoranda for him to review. 'He was not a man of many words, but each word counted,' she said, 'and he also was very funny and had a dry wit.' Advertisement In 1996, when Justice Wilkins was scheduled to be sworn in as chief justice in the governor's office, he noted in an interview that it was the same place where he had taken the oath as an associate justice in 1972. It also was the same place where his father, Raymond S. Wilkins, was sworn in as an SJC associate justice and later as chief justice. 'So it's going to be a four-fer,' Justice Wilkins told The Boston Globe. Then he joked that he had picked Though nominated to be an SJC associate justice by 'In my view, our state Constitution tells us today that the state may not engage in the senseless killing of a murderer, even though he is by definition a person who has committed a senseless killing himself,' His more nationally lasting impact involved helping place the SJC at the cutting edge from the mid-1970s onward in issuing state Constitution rulings that more forcefully protected individual rights during an era when the US Supreme Court generally was not doing so. 'I rather regard it as an anchor to the windward to protect people's rights that we should all be in favor of,' Justice Wilkins said in a 1986 interview. Advertisement Justice Wilkins 'understood that state constitutions were terribly important,' Marshall said, and by doing so was 'was among the most highly regarded jurists among state jurists.' From the outset as chief justice, he worked amiably with the state Legislature. That close work with lawmakers helped spur appropriations to build and rehabilitate courts across the state, Marshall said. 'That was a singular achievement that nobody else had been able to do,' she said. Marshall added that Justice Wilkins also tried to ensure that legal assistance would be made more available to state residents who couldn't afford a lawyer when they found themselves caught up in complex court matters. The current Supreme Judicial Court justices 'As a jurist, he was known for his incisive rulings and meticulous attention to detail,' the statement said. 'His respectful and polite demeanor on and off the bench earned him the respect and admiration of all who worked with him. The people of the Commonwealth are fortunate that a person of his intellect, dignity, and commitment to justice was willing to devote his talents in their service.' The youngest of three siblings, Herbert Putnam Wilkins was born on Jan. 10, 1930, and grew up in Winchester. His mother, Mary Louisa Aldrich Wilkins, died in 1954, the year Justice Wilkins graduated from Harvard Law School. His father, Advertisement Before joining the SJC in 1972, the year after Raymond died, Justice Wilkins followed in his father's footsteps as a Harvard College and Harvard Law graduate. A decades-long resident of Concord, he was town counsel for Concord and Acton and chaired Concord's Board of Selectmen before becoming a judge. A Phillips Exeter Academy graduate, he formerly served on his alma mater's board of trustees and as president of the Harvard University Board of Overseers. Justice Wilkins also was a member of the council of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He also had been the 'He took his obligations seriously,' said Justice Wilkins joined the Palmer & Dodge law firm after law school and was a partner from 1960 until becoming a judge. In 1952, he married Angela Middleton, an internationally recognized expert in addressing learning disabilities and teaching those with dyslexia to read. When he met with reporters in July 1996, after Weld nominated him to lead the SJC, Justice Wilkins spoke with pride about Angela's work and said he believed he would be the first chief justice whose wife worked full time. With his four children, Justice Wilkins 'tried to instill a sense of social responsibility to do right by others, an obligation that we're all in this together,' said his son Advertisement Douglas's siblings are Stephen of Gloucester, an educator; In addition to his wife and children, Justice Wilkins leaves eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be announced. Justice Wilkins 'was a very, very kind man and I think he hired kind clerks,' said Dolberg, who added that the judge and his wife invited former clerks to gather for lunch each year around his birthday. One by one, all stood each year to discuss and update their careers, becoming an extended family through the annual gatherings, inspired by his life and work. 'We were so full of gratitude,' Dolberg said. 'We really felt he had been an amazing mentor and that he had helped guide us in our careers.' Bryan Marquard can be reached at
Iraqi News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Iraqi News
SJC President , the French Ambassador discuss a number of legal issues
Baghdad-INA The President of Supreme Judicial Council, Judge Faiq Zidan, discussed today, Monday, with the French ambassador several legal issues. "The President of the Supreme Judicial Council(SJC), Judge Faiq Zidan, received today the French ambassador to Iraq, Patrick Durel,' SJC stated in a statement received by the Iraqi News Agency (INA). "Judge Zidan discussed with him several legal issues related to the bilateral relations between the two countries,' The statement added .
Boston Globe
15-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Parents' religious beliefs must be followed in temporary DCF custody cases, SJC says
Advertisement The SJC said it was resting its decision on the state constitution while acknowledging that parents also had a parallel First Amendment right to practice their faith as they see fit. The court said it had never before decided how to balance the parents' 'residual constitutional rights' with DCF's 'compelling interest' to protect the health of children in its temporary custody by getting them vaccinated. The SJC noted Thursday's ruling reached a starkly different conclusion than a The key issue in the current case, the court said, was that placement with DCF in this case - and others like it - was short-term, not a permanent extinguishing of the couple's parental rights. Advertisement 'We are aware of no case extinguishing parental free exercise rights in this context,' Kafker wrote. 'A temporary loss of custody is just that.' The high court ruling came in the case of a child called Eve whose parents The DCF sought custody before Eve was born, and in the Juvenile Court litigation that followed said they were going to have the child vaccinated in keeping with a pediatric standard of care. The parents objected on the grounds that Rastafarians do not rely on Western medicine (except in life or death situations) and would give a child herbs to treat a headache or give elderberries and a bath to a child with a high fever, the SJC said. 'In the parents view, 'you're not supposed to put anything inside your body outside of what nature has already given you because it goes against God's plan.' ' Kafker wrote. The child was vaccinated, but the SJC ruling prevents DCF from going forward with others. In the decision, the SJC noted that state law contains a religious exemption from vaccination for parents whose children are not in temporary DCF custody. Further, while DCF claimed it was acting in the best interest of Eve if she were protected against significant illnesses through vaccination, the child protection agency, at the same time, did not require the three older children to be vaccinated. Advertisement 'The department has not demonstrated that leaving this child unvaccinated would substantially hinder the department's compelling interests,' Kafker wrote. John R. Ellement can be reached at
Boston Globe
14-05-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
SJC supports judicial inquiry into ShotSpotter reliability, technology used to track gunshots in cities
'We note that, although it was not requested in the instant case, a Daubert-Lanigan hearing should be allowed if so requested to further inform the court regarding retrospective forensic use of ShotSpotter technology,' Justice Scott L. Kafker wrote for the unanimous court. Advertisement He added, 'we are not aware that any Massachusetts court has undertaken a Daubert-Lanigan hearing regarding the retrospective forensic use of ShotSpotter technology." In the 1990s, the US Supreme Court and the SJC set a five-part test now known as Daubert-Lanigan before new science can be used in trials. They include peer review, support for the tech in the scientific community and testing to confirm its accuracy, The Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state's public defender agency, supports the SJC's call for scrutinizing ShotSpotter systems. The 'underlying methodology, the proprietary nature of its algorithms, and the lack of independent scientific validation raise serious questions about its accuracy and reliability — especially when used to retrospectively determine the timing, location, or even the existence of gunfire,'' CPCS spokesman Robert McGovern wrote. Advertisement ShotSpotter has been deployed by Boston police - and other Massachusetts police agencies - as part of its technological response to gun violence, and is used in real time to dispatch officers to active crime scenes and in court to support shooting and homicide prosecutions. But critics, including the New England Innocence Project and the national Innocence Project, contend the company has not undergone the rigorous judicial inquiry long required of new science - like was done for DNA testing - before it was used in criminal cases. 'Flawed forensic science is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions.' Mitha Nandagopalan, staff attorney for the national Innocence Project wrote in an e-mail to the Globe. 'It's past time Massachusetts courts examine whether ShotSpotter is reliable.' A 2024 study by researchers at Northeastern University found ShotSpotter does get police to active crime scenes faster and for improved evidence collection. ShotSpotter was questioned in the first degree murder appeal of Lee M. Rios convicted for the March 24, 2015, shooting of Kenneth Lopez multiple times in Springfield. During his Hampden Superior Court trial, a ShotSpotter employee testified the geolocation system can mistake loud sounds for gunshots. In the Rios trial, ShotSpotter mistakenly identified a location 300 yards from where Lopez was actually killed, and only by manually reviewing the data was the error corrected, the SJC said. In his appeal, Rios argued the flawed ShotSpotter report undermined his defense and justified granting him a new trial, among other grounds. Advertisement The SJC, however, disagreed. 'There was overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt entirely separate from the ShotSpotter evidence,'' Kafker wrote for the court. If the Daubert-Lanigan finds the ShotSpotter unreliable, the use as a forensic tool could be severely restricted in criminal cases, attorneys said. The Globe requested comment from Hampden District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni's office, which prosecuted Rios. John R. Ellement can be reached at
The Star
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Star
Vietnam's Central Bank ordered to stabilise gold market
People queue to buy gold in front of Bao Tin Minh Chau's gold store in Hanoi on May 10. Gold prices hit an unprecedented high of VNĐ92.4 million (equivalent to US$3,630) per tael on May 10. - Photo: VNA/VNS HANOI: (Bernama-Xinhua) Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has directed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to take measures to stabilise the gold market, following sharp fluctuations in domestic gold prices and a widening gap between domestic and global rates, reported Xinhua quoting the Vietnam News Agency on Wednesday (May 14). The SBV has been tasked with ensuring that gold price volatility does not undermine the stability and safety of the country's financial and monetary systems, the state owned media quoted Chinh as saying. Vietnam's gold prices hit a historic high on April 22, 2025, when Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) gold bars surged to 122.5 million Vietnamese dong per tael (approximately US$4,721). On Wednesday, SJC gold bar prices were listed at around 118 million Vietnamese dong (US$4,548) for sellers and 120 million Vietnamese dong (US$4,625) for buyers. - Bernama-Xinhua
