Commonwealth v. Correia
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of voluntary manslaughter and his sentence of ten to twelve years in prison, holding that the trial errors detected in the underlying proceedings did not, either individually or in combination, create a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice.
Defendant was charged with murder in the first degree and, after a jury trial, convicted of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. On appeal, Defendant argued that rap lyrics he had written were erroneously admitted at trial, that the Commonwealth improperly commented on his rearrest silence, that one of the deliberating jurors was not fair and impartial, and that the jury instructions misstated the law on self-defense. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding (1) there was error in the trial court's decision to admit Defendant's lyrics, but Defendant was not prejudiced; (2) referencing Defendant's pre-arrest silence was error, but there was no substantial likelihood of miscarriage of justice; but (3) in the context of the entire trial, there was no substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice.
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.