Commonwealth v. Downey

To support his motion for a new trial, the defendant submitted an affidavit with an extraordinary claim: that his lead trial attorney had agreed with a television production company to wear a body microphone throughout the defendant’s trial on a charge of murder in the first degree, and that the defendant first learned of that arrangement in court on the second day of the trial. A judge of the Superior Court denied the defendant’s motion without an evidentiary hearing, concluding that the defendant had shown no prejudice as a result of the arrangement. We vacate the order denying the new…