[Download] "Commonwealth v. Kevin P. Wood" by Appeals Court of Massachusetts # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Commonwealth v. Kevin P. Wood
- Author : Appeals Court of Massachusetts
- Release Date : January 24, 1979
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 68 KB
Description
At a criminal trial statements in the Judge's charge to the jury that reasonable doubt is ""that doubt which amounts to a moral certainty"" and that ""if . . . you are convinced of the defendant's guilt to a moral certainty, you must find him guilty,"" in the absence of corrective language elsewhere in the charge, amounted to error resulting in a substantial risk of a miscarriage of Justice and necessitated reversal of convictions notwithstanding the failure of trial counsel to note an exception or otherwise call the error to the Judge's attention. [457-458] At the trial of indictments charging kidnapping and rape, no abuse of discretion appeared in the admission of the victim's testimony that, immediately after the alleged rape, the defendant stated to her that he had been imprisoned previously for rape, where the statement was relevant to the charges as showing the victim's state of mind and fear of the defendant and as an admission in the course of an apology, where it appeared that the Judge had considered the potential prejudicial effect of the testimony, and where the Judge's express instructions limited the jury's consideration of the defendant's statement. [459-460]