Commonwealth vs. Gene L. Perry

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court1997-05-12

424 Mass. 1019

Summary · law.co

Holding. The court affirmed the trial judge's denial of Perry's motion for a new trial, holding that the failure to instruct the jury on intoxication as it relates to malice aforethought does not constitute constitutional error and rejecting his request for retroactive application of any expanded protections on this issue.

Gene L. Perry was convicted of first-degree murder in 1980 and had his conviction reduced to second-degree murder following plenary appellate review in 1982. Between 1982 and 1992, Perry filed four separate motions for a new trial, all of which were denied. His fourth motion, filed in 1992, argued that the trial judge committed constitutional error by failing to instruct the jury that intoxication could be considered regarding whether he acted with malice aforethought. Perry appealed the denial of this motion.

The court first addressed a procedural issue: whether Perry, having received plenary review that reduced his conviction, remained subject to the "gatekeeper" restrictions that normally limit further appeals in murder cases. The majority reaffirmed its prior holding that such restrictions do not apply when a first-degree murder conviction has been reduced to second-degree murder through plenary review. On the merits, the court rejected Perry's constitutional argument, finding that the failure to instruct on intoxication does not constitute constitutional error and that prior decisions declining to apply such a rule retroactively remain controlling.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

Whether gatekeeper appeal restrictions apply after plenary review reduces a first-degree murder conviction to second-degree murder
Whether a trial judge's failure to instruct on intoxication as it relates to malice aforethought constitutes constitutional error
Whether to give retroactive effect to evolving appellate holdings on intoxication instructions

Procedural posture

Perry appealed the Superior Court judge's denial of his fourth motion for a new trial, which had been filed twelve years after his initial conviction was reduced on direct appeal.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion · public domain

majority opinion

In 1980, the defendant, Gene L. Perry, was indicted for, and convicted of, murder in the first degree. Perry appealed to this court pursuant to G. L. c. 278, § 33E, as amended by St. 1979, c. 346, § 2, effective July 1, 1979. Exercising the power of plenary review provided by that statute, we reduced the conviction to murder in the second degree. Commonwealth v. Perry, 385 Mass. 639, 648-649 (1982). Between 1982 and 1987, Perry filed three postrescript motions for a new trial, which were denied. See 26 Mass. App. Ct. 1116 (1988). Then, in 1992, he filed a fourth such motion, which a judge in the Superior Court denied, stating, “Nothing in this motion is new or could not have been presented at trial and appeal or in [Perry’s] three prior new trial motions — ‘Court refuses to act.’ ” Perry appealed from that ruling and we granted the Commonwealth’s application for direct appellate review on the question of the continuing validity of the court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Lattimore, 400 Mass. 1001 (1987), that a defendant, whose conviction of murder in the first degree has been reduced to murder in the second degree after plenary review under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, is not subject to § 33E’s gatekeeper restriction governing further appeals. After further consideration of the “gatekeeper” issue, the court, by a majority of five Justices to two, reaffirms its Lattimore holding. See Commonwealth v. Lanoue, 409 Mass. 1, 8-10 (1990) (O’Connor, J., concurring, with whom Greaney, J., joined). The court remains unpersuaded that “the Legislature intended that, where a defendant has received plenary review under § 33E, the gatekeeper provisions should be a condition of any further appeal,” Lattimore, supra at 1001, where the plenary review resulted in a reduction of the verdict. Therefore, we turn briefly to the merits.

Tracy A. Peterson & David J. Byer for the defendant.

Scott H. Kremer, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth.

Wendy Sibbison, for the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, amicus curiae, submitted a brief.

The defendant’s latest motion for a new trial is based on his assertion that the trial judge committed constitutional error by failing to instruct the jury that they could consider intoxication on the issue whether he acted with malice aforethought. No such instruction was requested and no objection was made at the time of trial. We have previously held that the failure to instruct on the issue of intoxication does not rise to a constitutional level. See Commonwealth v. Vazquez, 419 Mass. 350, 355 (1995); Commonwealth v. Costello, 392 Mass. 393, 405 (1984). We have repeatedly declined to give retroactive effect to our holdings which have expounded on this issue. See Commonwealth v. Gagliardi, 418 Mass. 562 (1994), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1091 (1995); Commonwealth v. Sama, 411 Mass. 293 (1991); Commonwealth v. Grey, 399 Mass. 469 (1987). Nothing in this case persuades us to depart from those decisions. The decision of the motion judge denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial is affirmed.

So ordered.