Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 6/10/1977

Commonwealth v. Chase

Citations

363 N.E.2d 1105
372 Mass. 736
1977 Mass. LEXIS 975

How courts have described this case

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

defendant, previously convicted of murder, declined to testify at his murder trial, asserting the unfair, inhibitory effect of G. L. c. 233, § 21
judge could properly exclude prior conviction where crime charged and prior crime are similar, and prior crime does not bear directly on disposition to tell truth
defendant’s recourse is to request careful limiting instructions that evidence does not go to guilt but only to credibility
court stated that it would not deny any judge the right to avoid unfairness, if prejudice to the defendant as a result of evidence of prior convictions were intense
no unnecessary suggestiveness where the witness was taken to a lounge by the police, and the witness identified the bartender as the murderer after having identified him from photographs
\Extrinsic evidence on a collateral matter may be introduced at trial for the purposes of impeachment only in the discretion of the judge\

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Hennessey, Quirico, Braucher, Kaplan, Wilkins

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

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

Cites

37 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Other cases with this name

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.