Commonwealth v. Morales
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The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant's convictions of murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit murder and declined to grant extraordinary relief under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding that the trial judge did not abuse her discretion in admitting certain prior consistent statements and that there was no reason to grant a new trial or to reduce the verdict.
A jury convicted Defendant of murder in the first degree on the theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty and of conspiracy to commit murder. Defendant appealed, arguing that the trial judge abused her discretion by allowing a State police trooper to testify to the prior statements of a key witness that were consistent with that witness's trial testimony. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed and declined to exercise its authority to reduce the verdict or order a new trial, holding there was no error in the admission of the prior consistent statements.
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