Commonwealth v. Rivera

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Defendant was convicted on two indictments charging murder in the first degree and one indictment charging unlawful carrying of a firearm. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions. Defendant subsequently filed a motion for a new trial. The superior court judge denied Defendant’s motion, and, in 2004, a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court denied Defendant’s application for leave to appeal, pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E. A decade later, Defendant filed a motion in the county court asking the same single justice to reconsider his 2004 ruling and, on reconsideration, to recuse himself and to assign the matter to a different judge. The single justice allowed the motion to reconsider, denied the request for recusal, and denied the application for leave to appeal on reconsideration. The Supreme Judicial Court allowed the appeal to proceed as to the recusal issue only. The Court affirmed the single justice’s order declining to recuse himself and thus dismissed Defendant’s appeal from the single justice’s order denying the application, holding that there was no reasonable basis to question the single justice’s impartiality, and, furthermore, Defendant’s motion was untimely. View "Commonwealth v. Rivera" on Justia Law