Commonwealth v. Burts

After a six-day jury trial on an indictment for murder in the first degree, the defendant was convicted of murder in the second degree on March 3, 2003. On this direct appeal,1 the defendant complains of (a) ineffective assistance of counsel in four specifics, and (b) denial of a fair and impartial trial because of improprieties in the prosecutor’s closing argument. The ineffective claims are (1) counsel’s alleged blunders (in several respects) regarding an “expert” on the “handedness” of the assailant; (2) his decision to pursue an argument that the eyewit*685ness’s testimony was the product of…