Commonwealth v. Libran

How courts have described this case

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

• fact that defendant was suffering from mental retardation and mental impairment did not render his waiver involuntary
• \Evidence of prior misconduct is not generally admissible to prove bad character or a propensity to commit crimes\
• defendant’s initial fabrication of exculpatory story revealed an awareness that speaking to the police could be harmful to his inter ests
• “no other trial witness testified to direct knowledge of how and when the defendant obtained a knife, and thus the statements were not cumulative of other evidence”
• judge did not err in admitting testimony as to defendant’s using knife and disposing of it night before murders because it was relevant to both sanity and state of mind
• although Commonwealth did not rebut testimony at hearing on motion to suppress regarding defendant’s schizophrenic and depressive mental condition, judge was not precluded from ruling that statements were voluntary

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).