# Commonwealth v. Vitello

> Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · April 1, 1975 · 367 Mass. 224

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9712845

## Case

- **Full name:** Commonwealth vs. Ralph F. Vitello (And Eleven Companion Cases)
- **Court:** Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- **Decided:** April 1, 1975
- **Citations:** 367 Mass. 224; 327 N.E.2d 819; 1975 Mass. LEXIS 839
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Kaplan
- **Judges:** Tauro, Beardon, Qumico, Braucher, Hennessey, Kaplan, Wilkins
- **Cited by:** 122 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9712845

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding that state legislation authorizing wiretapping and electronic surveillance “may adopt standards more stringent than the requirements of Federal law, thus excluding from state courts evidence which would be admissible in Federal courts, [but] may not adopt standards tha…
- declining to require ‘“specific search protocols or minimization undertakings as basic predicates for upholding digital search warrants”
- noting that it is necessary to restrict wiretapping “to ensure that unjustified and overly broad intrusions on rights of privacy are avoided” (emphasis added)

## Opinion text

Kaplan, J.
(dissenting). I refer to my separate opinion in Commonwealth v. Lykus, ante, 191 (1975). In the present cases, a ruling that it was error to receive the evidence based on the voice spectrograms would appear to entail reversal of the judgments.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9712845. Public record. Not legal advice.