Owens v. Commonwealth (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-086-13)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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‑11368 JULIUS OWENS vs. COMMONWEALTH.[1] May 15, 2013. Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts. Practice, Criminal, Interlocutory appeal, Speedy trial, Competency to stand trial. The petitioner, Julius Owens, filed a pro se petition in the county court seeking interlocutory review of the denial of his motion to dismiss indictments against him in an underlying criminal case. He claimed that the indictments should have been dismissed on speedy trial ground. A single justice denied relief, and the petitioner appeals, claiming that the single justice abused his discretion in denying the petition, pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3. We affirm. The denial of a motion to dismiss in a criminal case cannot be appealed by a defendant as a matter of right until after trial. Nor is review of such an interlocutory ruling available as a matter of right under G. L. c. 211, § 3. “Unless a single justice decides the matter on the merits or reserves and reports it to the full court, neither of which occurred here, a defendant cannot receive review under G. L. c. 211, § 3, from the denial of his motion to dismiss.” Jackson v. Commonwealth, 437 Mass. 1008, 1009 (2002). With one limited exception not applicable here, these principles apply to all motions to dismiss, including those, like the petitioner’s, that raise speedy trial claims. See Esteves v. Commonwealth, 434 Mass. 1003, 1005 (2001). Accord Grand-Pierre v. Commonwealth, 461 Mass. 1003, 1004 (2011); Fitzpatrick v. Commonwealth, 453 Mass. 1014, 1015 (2009); Glawson v. Commonwealth, 450 Mass. 1009, 1009-1010 (2007); Bateman v. Commonwealth, 449 Mass. 1024, 1024 (2007). Regardless whether the “brief and appendix” the petitioner has filed was intended to be a memorandum pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), or an appellate brief pursuant to Mass. R. A. P. 16, as amended, 428 Mass. 1603 (1999), he has failed to demonstrate the absence or inadequacy of the ordinary appellate review process. He claims that he has been adjudicated incompetent, see G. L. c. 123, § 16; that an appeal after a conviction would not be an adequate remedy because his “adjudication of ‘incompetency’ is unlikely to change at any point in the for[e]seeable future”; and thus that there will be no trial and appeal. If his competency is restored, […]