Commonwealth v. Chambers

I respectfully dissent because I cannot agree with the majority that, as the case unfolded, the excluded testimony of the victim’s prior violent conduct was either cumulative or marginal.

After a voir dire hearing during which she heard testimony from the defendant’s proposed witness, the judge, without objection from the Commonwealth, made a pretrial ruling that evidence of the victim’s earlier assault and robbery of the defendant’s proposed witness was admissible on the first aggressor issue. *635See Commonwealth v. Adjutant, 443 Mass. 649, 664 (2005) (specific acts of victim’s prior violent…