Commonwealth v. Guzman

Defendant pleaded guilty to several offenses, including the dissemination of visual material depicting a child in a state of nudity or sexual conduct, one of the sex offenses involving a child enumerated in Mass. Gen. Laws. ch. 265, 47 that requires a defendant convicted of such an offense to be subject to global positioning system (GPS) monitoring as a condition of any term of probation. The sentencing judge in this case declined to require that Defendant wear a GPS device as a condition of probation. The Supreme Judicial Court reversed, holding that the failure to include GPS monitoring as a condition of Defendant’s probation was error, where (1) a sentencing judge has no discretion whether to impose GPS monitoring on a defendant sentenced to a probationary term for an enumerated offense; and (2) Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 265, 47 does not violate Defendant’s due process rights. View "Commonwealth v. Guzman" on Justia Law