DeMatos v. Commonwealth
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of trafficking in oxycodone. Defendant’s appeal from his convictions was pending at the time of this opinion. Here, Defendant appealed from two judgments of a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court. The first judgment concerned a “petition for appeal to [the] Supreme Judicial Court pursuant to [Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 28]”, and the second judgment concerned a petition that Defendant subsequently filed in the count court pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 211, 3. The single justice denied both petitions. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding (1) the single justice was correct to deny the petition pursuant to chapter 278 section 28 because the statute does not give a defendant the right to petition in the Court in lieu of, or in addition to, his direct appeal in the appeals court; and (2) Defendant’s petition pursuant to chapter 211 section 3 was also without merit.
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