Commonwealth v. Lally
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree on theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. Defendant subsequently filed a motion for a new trial based on alleged trial errors. The motion was denied after an evidentiary hearing. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the order denying Defendant’s motion for new trial as well as Defendant’s conviction and discerned no basis to exercise its authority pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding (1) the trial court erroneously admitted certain DNA evidence, but there was no substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice; (2) trial counsel was not ineffective for introducing audiotapes of prior consistent statements made by the Commonwealth’s principal witness for impeachment purposes; (3) there was no substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice created by the admission of a cooperating codefendant’s plea agreement without prior redaction; (4) there was no error in the admission of prior bad act evidence; and (5) trial counsel did not provide ineffective assistance.
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