Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 7/30/1990

Commonwealth v. Gagnon

Citations

557 N.E.2d 728
408 Mass. 185
1990 Mass. LEXIS 336

How courts have described this case

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

stating that “a trial judge has no discretion to permit a witness to appear before a jury for the sole purpose of properly invoking his or her privilege against self-incrimination”
finding trial judge has no discretion to permit witness to appear before jury solely for purpose of invoking privilege against self-incrimination
“[Cjalling [the witness] to the stand in the face of his expressed intention to invoke his privilege against self-incrimination would have produced no relevant evidence, while inviting the jury to engage in unwarranted and impermissible speculation.”
evidence that a witness exercises his Fifth Amendment right “produce[s] no relevant evidence, while inviting the jury to engage in unwarranted and impermissible speculation”
“a trial judge has no discretion to permit a witness to appear before a jury for the sole purpose of properly invoking his or her privilege against self-incrimination”
“the scope of cross-examination, including to what extent the accuracy, veracity, and credibility of a witness may be tested, rests largely in the sound discretion of the judge”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Liacos, Abrams, Nolan, O'Connor, Greaney

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

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

Cites

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

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