Commonwealth v. The Ngoc Tran
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of murder in the first degree and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon on a person sixty years of age or older. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions, holding (1) the trial court did not err by not explicitly instructing the jury that when considering whether to accept Defendant’s statements to law enforcement under the human practice rule, they were entitled to evaluate the validity of his Miranda waiver as a factor; (2) the judge’s instructions regarding Defendant’s defense of mental impairment did not give rise to a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice; (3) Defendant’s convictions and sentences were not duplicative; and (4) the trial judge’s action of designating a sleeping juror as an alternate did not amount to a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice.
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