Commonwealth v. Ranahan

The defendant claims that the judge’s instruction to the jury on the definition of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor was error. The judge’s *202instruction used substantially the same language as that employed by another trial judge and held to be error in Commonwealth v. Connolly, 394 Mass. 169, 170-171 (1985).

1. The instant trial was held before the Supreme Judicial Court rendered its decision in the Connolly case. As the defendant did not object below, the question for this court is whether there was a “substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice”…