Commonwealth v. Martin

A judge in the Superior Court reported two questions to the Appeals Court pursuant to Mass. R. Crim. *497P. 34, 378 Mass. 905 (1979). The first question asks whether one of the alleged victims in the defendant’s case could properly invoke his privilege against self-incrimination, based on the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution or art. 12 of the Declaration of Rights to the Massachusetts Constitution, by simply asserting, through counsel, that his testimony at trial might differ materially from his prior grand jury testimony, thus creating the risk of prosecution on a charge of…