Commonwealth v. Moffat
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of murder in the first degree, holding that there was no reversible error in the proceedings below nor reason to exercise the Court's authority under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 278, 33E.
Specifically, the Supreme Judicial Court held (1) the Commonwealth did not violate Defendant's due process rights by omitting evidence that helped Defendant and that countered the prosecutor's theory of the case; (2) error occurred when a lay witness testified that he had previously referred to Defendant as the "guy...who killed my cousin" but the inadmissible evidence did not create a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice; (3) the prosecutor improperly urged the jury to draw an inference of guilt against Defendant due to his courtroom behavior, but the error did not create a substantial likelihood of a miscarriage of justice; (4) there was no error in the jury instructions regarding circumstantial evidence; (5) Defendant's trial counsel did not provide ineffective assistance; and (6) the motion judges did not err in denying the defendant's motions for posttrial discovery.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.