Commonwealth v. Roth

The Commonwealth has petitioned pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3, asking this court to set aside “partial verdicts” taken after a deliberating jury twice reported that they were deadlocked. A single justice of this court reserved and reported the case to the full bench. While we agree with the Commonwealth that the judge erred in taking “partial verdicts” on lesser included offenses within a single indictment, principles of double jeopardy preclude retrial of the defendant on the offenses as to which the jury rendered verdicts of not guilty. Although the judge should not have asked for or taken…