Commonwealth v. Seymour

The defendant appeals from her conviction of driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, claiming that her privilege against self-incrimination and the provision of G. L. c. 90, § 24(1) (e), making evidence of failure to submit to a breathalyzer test inadmissible at trial, were violated when the trial judge permitted the prosecutor to ask her on cross-examination whether she had refused to take a breathalyzer test. This error was compounded, the defendant contends, when the prosecutor, during her closing speech, argued that the defendant’s refusal to submit to a breathalyzer…