Commonwealth v. Brown

The defendant appealed from a conviction, following a jury trial, of armed robbery. On April 4, 1979, before the defendant’s appeal was docketed in this court, he filed a motion for a new trial based on the holding in Commonwealth v. Soares, 377 Mass. 461 (1979), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 481 (1980). Following a hearing held on May 2, 1979, the motion judge, who was not the trial judge, filed a memorandum declining to act on the motion and the case was reported to us on the record. The defendant raises two issues: 1) whether the prosecutor improperly used his peremptory challenges systematically…