In re Evelyn A.
Annotate this CaseEvelyn and Elijah, twins, were born to parents who had previously been found guilty of manslaughter. The twins went from the hospital into foster care. The district court later terminated both parents’ parental rights to the twins. The parents appealed and moved for relief from the judgment of termination and later moved for relief from the court’s initial finding of jeopardy, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court concluded that trial counsel had been ineffective at the jeopardy stage and vacated the termination order. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the court’s judgment granting the parents’ motion for relief as it affected the original jeopardy determination and remanded, holding that the district court erred in addressing the parents’ untimely raised ineffective assistance of counsel allegations, in ordering further reunification efforts, and in declining to adjudicate the claim of ineffective assistance of counsel regarding the termination proceeding.
Court Description: Corrected September 19, 2017 (Errata sheet)
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.