Commonwealth v. Neves
Annotate this CaseThe defendant was convicted on a theory of felony-murder in the 2008 shooting death of a Brockton taxicab driver. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, agreeing that the defendant voluntarily waived his Miranda rights before admitting to the shooting during a recorded interview. The defendant subsequently requested that the police stop talking to him, but any error in continuing the interview was harmless, beyond a reasonable doubt, in light of other evidence. The court upheld the introduction of a witness's grand jury testimony after the witness claimed a loss of memory; the court’s failure to strike, upon request, another witness's testimony after learning that he had violated a sequestration order; and the court’s the failure to give a requested instruction on involuntary manslaughter. Denying relief under G. L. 278, 33E, the court reasoned that some of the defendant's statements to police were not made voluntarily and should not have been admitted, but that any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
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