Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 3/5/1999

Commonwealth v. Thomas

Citations

429 Mass. 146
706 N.E.2d 669
1999 Mass. LEXIS 116

How courts have described this case

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

missing witness instruction advised jury that they could draw inference that testimony of witness who did not testify would have been unfavorable to particular party
finding cross-examination “strongly implied” fabrication by inquiring into why the witness had not immediately informed police on certain details
testimony of relative of defendant is “inherently less credible than the testimony of other witnesses”
prosecutor’s opening statement “must be judged in light of the enhre [statement], the judge’s instructions to the jury, and the evidence actually introduced at trial”
defendant’s girlfriend legitimately designated a “missing witness” because she “[w]ould have been expected to offer testimony . . . that ‘could not be duplicated’ by any other witness”
“A prosecutor in his opening may explain the facts that he expects to prove during the trial, so long as he has a good faith expectation that he will be able to do so with relevant and admissible evidence”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Fried

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Cited by

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

Cites

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

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