Commonwealth v. Kelly
Annotate this CaseDuring a house party in 2008, multiple guests, who were Caucasion, committed acts of physical violence against an African-American. Amanda Kelly was convicted of a violation of civil rights with bodily injury. Christopher Bratlie and Kevin Shdeed were both convicted of a violation of civil rights without bodily injury. All defendants were convicted of assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation. Bratlie was further convicted of assault and battery as a lesser included offense of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and assault and battery. The Supreme Judicial Court (1) affirmed Kelly’s and Shdeed’s convictions, holding that the trial judge did not err in not instructing the jury that in order to convict Defendants of assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation, the jury must find that race was a substantial factor motivating the defendants’ unlawful conduct; and (2) vacated Bratlie’s conviction of a second count of assault and battery as duplicative, and affirmed his remaining convictions.
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