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Commonwealth v. Williams

Citations

  • 391 N.E.2d 1202
  • 378 Mass. 217
  • 1979 Mass. LEXIS 834

How courts have described this case

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

  • while judge made no explicit finding of knowing and intelligent waiver, record is clear that judge applied appropriate standard
  • although judge should have made findings on motion to suppress, failure to do so not automatically reversible error
  • judge’s failure to instruct on elements of armed robbery where that felony underlay felony-murder charge not improper when defense theory at trial did not question that armed robbery took place
  • moral certainty language, by itself, does not render reasonable doubt instructions invalid, and stating that emphasis on necessity of moral certainty of guilt may overcome isolated inadequacies in explanation of reasonable doubt

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Hennessey, Quirico, Braucher, Wilkins, Liacos

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

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

Cites

65 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.