The Extraordinary Criminal Law Jurisprudence of Justice Ralph Gants

Abstract

The untimely passing of Chief Justice Ralph Gants represented a tremendous loss to the Massachusetts court system and communities throughout the Commonwealth. Ralph Gants positively impacted countless lives through his work both on and off the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. From his advocacy against minimum mandatory sentencing and his promotion of racial justice, to his efforts to advance eyewitness identification, first-degree murder theory, and Brady protections for criminal defendants, Chief Justice Gants’s legacy reflects the visionary grandeur with which he tackled every issue presented to him. This Article honors his immense judicial legacy by considering several of the areas of the law where Chief Justice Gants’s positive impact was most clearly felt.