Commonwealth v. Drummond

The defendant, Luis Drummond, was convicted of armed robbery while masked, G. L. c. 265, § 17, based in part on a confession he made to a detective when the two were alone in a police interrogation room. Because the interrogation had not been recorded, the defendant requested and received a jury instruction pursuant to Commonwealth v. DiGiambattista, 442 Mass. 423, 447-448 (2004). However, the trial judge blunted the impact of the instruction by telling jurors they could disregard it if they *626found that the defendant had in essence declined to have the interrogation recorded after being…