COMMONWEALTH v. PFEIFFER

SJC-13355.

492 Mass. 440 (2023)

COMMONWEALTH v. MELISSA PFEIFFER.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

July 17, 2023.


Attorney(s) appearing for the Case

Ian MacLean , Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Patrick Levin , Committee for Public Counsel Services, for the defendant.

Merritt Schnipper , Radha Natarajan , Stephanie Hartung , Katharine Naples-Mitchell , & Audrey Murillo , for New England Innocence Project & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief.

David J. Nathanson & Eva G. Jellison , for Daniel Rogers, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

Present: Budd, C.J., Gaziano, Lowy, Cypher, Wendlandt, & Georges, JJ.


At issue in this appeal is whether the trial judge abused her discretion by reducing the defendant's verdict pursuant to Mass. R. Crim. P. 25(b)(2), as amended, 420 Mass. 1502 (1995). The defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree on a theory of felony-murder, with arson as the predicate felony. We affirmed the defendant...

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