Commonwealth v. Javier
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The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant’s conviction of murder in the first degree as a joint venturer and declined to exercise its authority to grant relief under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E, holding that the evidence was sufficient to prove that Defendant was present at the scene, knowingly participated in the shooting, and had the mental state necessary to the offense.
Specifically, the Court held (1) the evidence was sufficient to warrant the jury’s finding that Defendant was guilty of murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation as a joint venturer; (2) while the exclusion of certain evidence would have been better practice, the admission of the evidence would not have had any impact on the jury’s verdict; and (3) allowing the presence of a police witness at the prosecutor’s table was not an abuse of the judge’s discretion.
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