Commonwealth v. Keown

The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant’s conviction for murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation and declined to grant relief under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E. On direct appeal, the court held (1) the trial judge did not err in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress certain computer evidence; (2) the trial judge did not abuse her discretion in declining to exclude evidence related to Defendant’s computer username and Internet search results, Defendant’s prior bad acts, and the victim’s statements and e-mail messages; (3) any misstatement made by the prosecutor during closing argument was not so great that it created a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice; and (4) the trial judge’s instruction to the jury permitting them to infer an intent to kill based on the use of poison properly instructed the jury on the use of dangerous weapons. View "Commonwealth v. Keown" on Justia Law