Commonwealth v. Chukwuezi

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation, and of unlawful possession of a firearm for the shooting death of a fifteen year old boy. Defendant received the statutorily required sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for his murder conviction. Defendant was eighteen years old at the shooting. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding (1) the trial judge did not abuse her discretion in excluding from evidence a computer-generated simulation that was intended to assist the jury in determining the shooter’s height; (2) the remainder of the trial court’s evidentiary rulings challenged on appeal were not in error; (3) the Commonwealth did not improperly invoke the jury’s sympathy during closing argument; (4) Defendant’s sentence was not unconstitutional; and (5) there was no basis on which to grant Defendant extraordinary relief under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E. View "Commonwealth v. Chukwuezi" on Justia Law