Commonwealth v. Fritz
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on the theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty, and of unlawful possession of a firearm. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions and the denial of his motions for a new trial and discerned no basis to reduce the verdict or to order a new trial pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding (1) defense counsel was not ineffective for failing to object when court officers excluded the public and Defendant’s family from the courtroom during jury empanelment; (2) Defendant waived his right to be present at sidebar discussions during jury empanelment; (3) the trial judge acted within his discretion in deciding not to allow Defendant’s peremptory challenges of three African-American jurors; (4) Defendant’s challenges to the trial judge’s evidentiary rulings were without merit; (5) the prosecutor did not impermissibly bolster the creditability of certain witnesses or commit prejudicial error during closing argument; (6) no substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice occurred when the judge instructed the jury; and (7) Defendant’s motion for a new trial was properly denied.
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