Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1/3/2003

Commonwealth v. Kilburn

Citations

438 Mass. 356
780 N.E.2d 1237
2003 Mass. LEXIS 2

How courts have described this case

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

indicating whether a felony is independent enough of a killing to invoke felony murder “defies categorical analysis” and should be determined case by case
finding no merger where victim opened door, and defendant “immediately brandished a gun and pushed the victim backward” and fatally shot victim “[a]fter a short interlude”
noting “judge did not distinguish between the two possible [assaults] when he charged the jury on felony-murder,” but concluding “the judge’s error had no material impact on the outcome of the trial”
rejecting attempt to avoid consequences of waiver by characterizing claim as one of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel; because every waived claim can be couched in ineffectiveness terms, which would render the entire principle of waiver meaningless
no merger where evidence of assault by means of brandishing pistol in addition to assault of shooting that caused victim’s death
court concludes that “the defendant has failed to demonstrate that the error created a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Cowin

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Cited by

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

Cites

19 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

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