Commonwealth v. White

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of one count of rape of a child. The underlying indictment alleged that Defendant raped his daughter on diverse dates between 1979 and 1981. Defendant appealed, raising statute of limitations claims. The Supreme Judicial Court vacated Defendant’s conviction, holding (1) the Commonwealth presented sufficient evidence from which the jury could determine that the indictment was timely returned, but the jury instruction concerning how to make this determination was incorrect, which resulted in a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice; (2) the required independent corroboration of any incidents of rape that occurred more than twenty-seven years before the indictment was returned must relate to the specific criminal act or acts of which a defendant is accused, and evidence of uncharged misconduct does not suffice; and (3) the Commonwealth’s corroborative evidence consisting only of evidence of uncharged misconduct was insufficient as a matter of law. Remanded for a new trial. View "Commonwealth v. White" on Justia Law