Commonwealth v. Kelly (and 11 companion cases) (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-026-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us SJC-11616 COMMONWEALTH vs. AMANDA KELLY (and eleven companion cases[1]). Plymouth. October 7, 2014. – February 20, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ. Assault or Battery for the Purpose of Intimidation. Civil Rights. Practice, Criminal, Instructions to jury, Duplicative convictions, Lesser included offense. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on August 14, 2008. The cases were tried before Paul E. Troy, J. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. Kirsten A. Zwicker Young (Glen A. Tagliamonte with her) for Amanda Kelly. Meghan E. Tafe Vadakekalam for Christopher M. Bratlie. Thomas C. Foley for Kevin P. Shdeed. Kristin Freeman, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Steven M. Freeman, Melissa Garlick, Lauren A. Jones, & Seth M. Marnin, of New York, & Michael N. Sheetz & Adam S. Gershenson, for Anti-Defamation League & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief. SPINA, J. This case arises from events that transpired shortly after midnight on June 12, 2008, during a house party in Marshfield where multiple guests, who are Caucasian, committed acts of physical violence against Tizaya Robinson, who is African-American. Following a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant, Amanda Kelly, was convicted of, among other offenses, a violation of civil rights with bodily injury, G. L. c. 265, § 37, and assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation resulting in bodily injury, G. L. c. 265, § 39 (b).[2] Her codefendants, Christopher M. Bratlie and Kevin P. Shdeed, each were convicted of a violation of civil rights without bodily injury, and assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation without bodily injury. Bratlie also was convicted of assault and battery as a lesser included offense of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon (shod foot), and assault and battery. All three defendants appealed their convictions to the Appeals Court, and we transferred their cases to this court on our own motion. Principal among the several claims of error is the defendants’ contention that the judge failed to instruct the jury properly that in order to convict the defendants of assault and battery for the purpose of intimidation, the jury must find that race was a “substantial factor” motivating the commission of the unlawful conduct. We conclude that […]