Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 11/26/1991

Commonwealth v. Anderson

Citations

581 N.E.2d 1296
411 Mass. 279
1991 Mass. LEXIS 557

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

noting that jury have “the capacity to discount hyperbole”
missing witness instruction inappropriate where party may have chosen not to call witness because witness’s criminal history may have weakened party’s case even if witness could have provided helpful testimony
regarding remarks by the same prosecutor, as we are informed, in another prison case
“if the circumstances, considered by ordinary logic and experience, suggest a plausible reason for nonproduction of the witness, the jury should not be advised of the inference”
“In the last analysis, the trial judge has discretion to refuse to give the instruction . . . and, conversely, a party who wishes the instruction cannot require it of right”
reference to prison as “sewer” permissible as “dramatic flourish” supported by record

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Lucos, Nolan, Lynch, O'Connor, Greaney

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

43 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

12 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

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