Drunken driving case continued for President Obama’s uncle

- Onyango Obama, the uncle of President Obama, will be allowed to have the case removed from his record if he avoids arrest for one year.

Boston Globe series on drunk driving wins Polk Award

- The Boston Globe Spotlight Team has won a George Polk Award, one of journalism’s top honors, for its investigative series that showed a majority of alleged drunk drivers in Massachusetts are found not guilty by judges, not juries.

Mass. residents more likely to binge drink

- Mass. was one of the states with the highest rates of binge drinking with nearly 22 percent of adults saying they overconsumed alcohol - compared with a national average of 17 percent.

SPOTLIGHT REPORT

Court mismatch makes OUI justice elusive

- Lawyers who specialize in defending drunk drivers enjoy huge legal advantages built into state law, and have the ear of some judges prone to favor their arguments, no matter how far-fetched.

SPOTLIGHT REPORT

A judicial haven for accused drunk drivers

- Plymouth County’s courts may be the most lenient in OUI trials. Judges hear most cases without a jury and acquit just about everyone, leaving police and victims appalled.

SJC will study rate of OUI acquittals

- The state’s highest court has opened a formal inquiry into whether the acquittal rate in drunken driving trials before judges, a rate that now eclipses 80 percent, is unusual and excessive, a step it called necessary to assure the judiciary’s integrity.

State to probe drunken driving acquittal rates

- The state’s highest court opened an inquiry following a Globe Spotlight investigation into high acquittal rates in trials presided over by district court judges.

SPOTLIGHT REPORT

For drunk drivers, a habit of judicial leniency

- When state judges hear OUI cases without a jury, they acquit the vast majority of defendants, no matter how blatant the alleged offense. It is one more way Massachusetts stands out nationally — for all the wrong reasons — on this crime.