Harmon v. Commissioner of Correction
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The Supreme Judicial Court answered three reported questions regarding judicial proceedings stemming from the denial of a petition for medical parole.
Plaintiffs - Raymon Harmon and Brian Racine - were prisoners who applied for release under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 127, 119A, the medical parole statute. The Commissioner of Correction denied both petitions. Harmon sought judicial review but died while his case was pending in the superior court. Racine requested that the Commissioner reconsider her decision and died after the Commissioner denied the request. The Supreme Judicial Court held (1) a prisoner's death renders judicial proceedings stemming from the denial of a petition for medical parole moot, but a court may use its discretion to decide the case; (2) the regulations of the Department of Corrections that limit the ability of prisoners to submit subsequent petitions for medical parole after one has been denied or not acted upon are void; and (3) section 119A applies only to committed offenders serving a sentence and not to pretrial detainees.
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