Good v. Commissioner of Correction

The plaintiff John Good is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, imposed by a judge of the Superior Court after his conviction of murder in the first degree. He filed this action in the Superior Court for the county of Middlesex, invoking G. L. c. 12, §§ 11H-11J (1992 ed.), claiming that the defendant commissioner and the Department of Correction (department) denied him periodic review of his inmate classification as required by 103 Code Mass. Regs. § 420.00, and also claiming violation of art. 26 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, the prohibition against cruel…