State v. Chase

NICHOLS, Justice.

On this appeal we confront a novel issue implicating M.R.Evid. 609, not as to admissibility of evidence of a witness’ prior conviction, but as to the comments the presiding justice made on that evidence in the course of a jury trial in Superior Court (Cumberland County).

The Defendant, Gary Chase, appealing from his conviction in that trial of unlawful possession of a Schedule X drug, a Class D *209offense under 17-A M.R.S.A. § 1107 (1983), argues that the Superior Court committed several errors during the voir dire of the jury and at the trial which followed. He contends that the…