Isabelle v. Mansfield

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER ON MAGISTRATE JUDGE’S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

STEARNS, District Judge.

This petition raises a substantial issue involving prosecutorial error under Doyle v. Ohio, 426 U.S. 610, 96 S.Ct. 2240, 49 L.Ed.2d 91 (1976). 1 As Magistrate Judge Dein explained, the debate over whether the error in the context of the trial as a whole merited a reversal of petitioner’s conviction split the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) into two sharply divided blocs. As the 4-3 vote of the SJC affirming petitioner’s conviction illustrates, the result could well have been different. One…