Commonwealth v. Sanders

Summary

The Supreme Judicial Court held that the trial judge prejudicially erred in excluding the defendant's postarrest medical records from MCI-Framingham and Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, which documented diagnoses and treatment of mental illness and underpinned her sole defense of lack of criminal responsibility; because defense counsel moved the subpoenaed records into evidence before the defense expert testified, the judge was required to rule on their admissibility under G. L. c. 233, § 79 rather than deferring admission until the prosecutor 'opened the door' on cross-examination. The court also addressed two closing-argument claims likely to recur at retrial, holding that the prosecutor's use of 'evil,' premised on the defendant's own words and tied to the wrongfulness issue, was permissible, but that argument suggesting the defendant concocted her account from the television program 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' was impermissible because no evidence connected the program to the killings. The judgments were vacated, the verdicts set aside, and the matter remanded for a new trial.