Commonwealth v. Jackson (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-064-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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-10398 COMMONWEALTH vs. MICHAEL JACKSON. Suffolk. January 9, 2015. – April 16, 2015. Present: Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, & Duffly, JJ. Homicide. Firearms. Jury and Jurors. Practice, Criminal, Instructions to jury, Empanelment of jury, Public trial, Failure to object, Waiver, Capital case. Jury and Jurors. Duress. Constitutional Law, Jury, Public trial, Waiver of constitutional rights. Waiver. Indictments found and returned in the Superior Court Department on March 27, 2002. The cases were tried before Patrick F. Brady, J., and a motion for a new trial, filed on March 18, 2010, was heard by him. Emanuel Howard for the defendant. Helle Sachse, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Afton M. Templin, for Committee for Public Counsel Services, amicus curiae, submitted a brief. CORDY, J. After a jury trial, the defendant, Michael Jackson, was convicted of murdering Jose Lane, the unlawful possession of a firearm, and the unlawful possession of ammunition. At trial, the defendant had requested that the judge instruct the jury that duress was an available defense to intentional murder, which the judge declined to do. Prior to sentencing, the defendant orally moved for a new trial and for a mistrial when it was learned that one of the jurors was not a United States citizen. Both motions were denied. On March 16, 2006, the judge imposed a mandatory sentence of life in State prison on the defendant’s conviction of murder in the first degree, a concurrent sentence of four and one-half years in State prison for the unlawful possession of a firearm, and a concurrent sentence of one year in a house of correction for the unlawful possession of ammunition. On March 22, 2010, the defendant filed a motion for a new trial under Mass. R. Crim. P. 30, as appearing in 435 Mass. 1501 (2001), on three grounds, the first two of which were rejected without a hearing on December 2, 2010,[1] and the third denied on May 3, 2011, after an evidentiary hearing.[2] The denial of this motion was consolidated with the defendant’s direct appeal. In his appeal, the defendant contends that the judge erred in denying his request to instruct the jury on duress, that the inclusion of a noncitizen juror on the jury constituted structural error requiring a new trial, and that his […]