Commonwealth v. Ivy

The defendant challenges his conviction for assault and battery upon his then girlfriend. G. L. c. 265, § 13A.1 The defendant’s appellate claims concern: (1) the admission as excited utterances of the complainant’s statements to a police officer describing the assault; (2) that the admission of the victim’s out-of-court identification as within the excited utterance evidence violated the defendant’s confrontation rights — an issue of first impression; (3) the exclusion of impeachment evidence concerning the nonappearing declarant-victim’s prior conviction; (4) impermissible burden shifting in…