Commonwealth v. Thatch

After a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant was convicted on a single indictment of rape (G. L. c. 265, § 22[b]).

1. The defendant points out that the evidence supported two incidents of digital penetration (of the victim’s anus.and vagina) immediately before an act of anal intercourse. He argues that because the trial judge failed to give a “specific unanimity” instruction to the jury, see Commonwealth v. Lemar, 22 Mass. App. Ct. 170, 171-173 (1986), the jury may not have unanimously agreed he committed the one act of rape with which he was charged in the indictment. To support…