Massachusetts v. Herndon
Annotate this CaseA jury found defendant Frankie Herndon guilty of the first degree murder of Derrick Barnes on the theory of deliberate premeditation and of possession of a firearm without a license. On appeal, defendant challenged: (1) the failure of the judge to instruct the jury on eyewitness identification in accordance with defendant's requested instruction that was created after "State v. Henderson," (208 N.J. 208 (2011)), and that presaged the Supreme Judicial Court's provisional eyewitness identification instructions set forth in "Commonwealth v. Gomes," (470 Mass. 352 (2015)); (2) the admission in evidence, through the testimony of two police officers, of an alleged out-of-court identification of the defendant and his codefendant, Frederick Henderson, by a witness although that witness did not testify concerning that alleged identification; and (3) the naming of the defendant's sister as a witness, which resulted in her sequestration from the court room. Finding no reversible error, the SJC affirmed defendant's convictions.
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