Commonwealth v. McGrath

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and his convictions were affirmed. See Commonwealth v. McGrath, 358 Mass. 314 (1970). In 1998 the defendant filed a motion for a new trial, his first, claiming error in the reasonable doubt instruction given at his trial. A judge in the Superior *47Court, who was not the trial judge, ordered a new trial. The judge ruled that the reasonable doubt instruction was constitutionally defective because it lowered the Commonwealth’s burden of proof (1) by equating proof beyond a reasonable doubt with the degree of certitude needed to make…