Commonwealth v. McFarland

This appeal questions the propriety of the trial judge’s ruling with respect to the defendant’s motion to exclude evidence of a prior criminal conviction which could have been used under G. L. c. 233, § 21, to impeach his credibility had he chosen to testify.

About thirteen months prior to this trial, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to, and was sentenced on, a charge of larceny from the person on a complaint which originally charged him with unarmed robbery. The motion in issue sought a pretrial ruling (as suggested by Commonwealth v. Diaz, 383 Mass. 73, 81 [1981]) barring use of the…