Commonwealth v. Perry

The defendant, Joseph S. Perry, appeals from a Superior Court judge’s denial of his motions to withdraw his plea of guilty of murder in the second degree and for a new trial. The defendant asserts that his plea was involuntary, due to his highly emotional state and poor understanding of English, his lack of understanding of the element of malice, his incorrect understanding of the penalty he faced for murder, and due to ineffective assistance of counsel. We transferred the case on our own motion. We reject the defendant’s claims and affirm the orders of the Superior Court judge.

We summarize…