Commonwealth v. Groce

The defendant was convicted of unarmed robbery after a jury trial in the Superior Court. He contends that the judge erred (1) in permitting the prosecutor to comment to the jury in his closing argument on the defendant’s failure to call two witnesses and then instructing the jury that they could consider that failure adversely to the defendant and (2) in instructing the jury that they could consider evidence of flight as consciousness of guilt. In each instance, the defendant preserved his appellate rights by making timely objections, not to the form of the instructions given, but because the…