Commonwealth v. Corliss

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on the theories of deliberate premeditation and felony-murder, among other crimes. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions and declined to grant relief under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding (1) the trial judge did not abuse her discretion by restricting Defendant’s attendance at a jury view; (2) the trial judge did not err by admitting a witness’s testimony that the witness saw Defendant with a gun more than one year before the shooting in question occurred; (3) the police’s failure to examine the money seized from Defendant’s residence for fingerprints of DNA before depositing the money into a bank account did not warrant dismissal of the charges against him; and (4) the trial judge’s exclusion of video and testimony of Defendant’s expert showing that surveillance footage of the shooting distorted the height of the perpetrator did not infringe on Defendant’s right to present a defense. View "Commonwealth v. Corliss" on Justia Law