Commonwealth v. Russell
Annotate this CaseDefendant was acquitted on eighteen counts of statutory rape but convicted on seven counts of the lesser-included offense of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen. On appeal, Defendant argued, among other things, that the trial judge’s instruction on reasonable doubt was constitutionally inadequate, and even if it was constitutionally sound, the charge on reasonable doubt established more than 150 years ago in Commonwealth v. Webster should be required in all criminal trials. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the convictions, holding (1) pursuant to the Court’s general superintendence power, a modernized version of the Webster charge must be given in criminal trials on a prospective basis; and (2) Defendant was not entitled to a special retroactive application of this new rule, and the judge’s instruction on reasonable doubt in this case passed constitutional muster.
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