It’s rare. But judges can dismiss a criminal case if the prosecutor fails to comply with the discovery requirements set out in Rule 14 of the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure.
According to the Supreme Judicial Court in Commonwealth v. Washington W.,
dismissal of a criminal case as a sanction is a remedy of last resort because it precludes a public trial and terminates criminal proceedings; such dismissals are affirmed only where there is egregious prosecutorial or police misconduct and prejudice to defendant’s right to a fair trial, and where dismissal is necessary to cure the prejudice
In that case,
the Commonwealth had deliberately, wilfully, and repetitively failed to provide statistical discovery relevant to a defense of selective prosecution that the judge had ordered
The full text of the opinion is attached below.