Commonwealth v. Scesny

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and aggravated rape. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed in part and reversed in part, holding (1) the evidence was insufficient to support Defendant’s conviction of aggravated rape; (2) the trial court did not err in admitting opinion testimony of a criminalist with the State police crime laboratory; (3) the trial court erred in admitting an autopsy report prepared by a medical examiner who did not testify at trial and in admitting the testimony of a substitute medical examiner, but the admission of this evidence did not create a substantial likelihood of miscarriage of justice; (4) the trial court did not err in admitting a witness’s testimony that she recognized Defendant as a patron of a bar in which the victim was seen on the night of her death; (5) the prosecutor committed error during closing arguments, but Defendant was not prejudiced by the errors; and (6) the trial judge did not err in declining to instruct the jury in accordance with Defendant’s proposed instruction on third-party culprit evidence. View "Commonwealth v. Scesny" on Justia Law