Argument: September 2010

Keywords: Criminal Law - Statute of Limitations

Question Presented: Whether the Commonwealth may indict a person identified only by their DNA profile, and then amend the indictment after the statute of limitations has run when a person with a matching DNA profile is found.

Facts: In 1991, two separate rapes were committed by an unknown person; the same DNA was recovered in both cases. Fourteen years and 360 days after the first incident, having still …

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Argument: September 2010

Keywords: Criminal Law - Probation - Sex Offenders

Question Presented: Whether a sex offender on probation, required to wear a GPS device but not to secure employment, can be held in violation of probation where he failed to secure employment or housing, and therefore had no place to charge his GPS device.

Facts: The defendant was convicted of a sex offense and later released on probation. The terms of his probation did not require him to secure employment, but did require him to …

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Argument: September 2010

Keywords: Copyright - Preemption

Question Presented: Whether the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 301, preempts state claims for implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, or interference with advantageous business relations, where the alleged wrongful conduct supporting each theory is copyright infringement.

Facts: The plaintiff, Harold Curtis, made distinctive advertisements for car dealerships, selling the designs to a limited number of geographically diverse dealers to preserve their value. Curtis provided advertisements to defendant …

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Argument: September 2010

Keywords: Criminal Procedure - Evidence

Question Presented: Whether an incriminating statement must be suppressed where police delayed granting the defendant’s request for a phone call until after he confessed, but still permitted the phone call within one hour of arrival at the station.

Facts: The defendant was arrested after selling cocaine to undercover police officers. A substantial quantity of cocaine was then found in the apartment he shared with his cousin. At the station …

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Argument: May 2010

Keywords: Constitutional Law - Criminal Procedure - Evidence - Search and Seizure

Question Presented: Whether a defendant’s conclusory motion to suppress evidence permitted him to challenge the reliability of a 911 call after the close of evidence; whether an anonymous statement that the defendant was waving a gun was sufficiently reliable to justify an investigatory stop.

Facts: Police received an anonymous 911 call that a person was loading a firearm and waving it in the air. The suspect was described as a black male wearing a gray …

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Argument: Not yet scheduled.

Keywords: Criminal Law - Home Invasion

Question Presented: Whether the intent element of home invasion may be proved in two separate ways, which must be indicted separately; whether home invasion may be accomplished by an instrument, such as a weapon.

Facts: The defendant frequently bought drugs from the victim’s apartment. One evening, after the victim opened his door to speak with the defendant, a third man rushed toward the door …

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