Commonwealth v. Simmons

The defendant, Paul Simmons, pleaded guilty to thirteen indictments in 1981. He was sentenced immediately on six indictments, and the remainder were “placed on file.” Approximately five years later, the defendant was arrested for a new crime. At his arraignment, one of the 1981 indictments was removed from the file and brought before a different judge to impose a prison sentence on the defendant. The Appeals Court vacated the denial of the defendant’s fourth motion for postconviction relief involving this sentence, see Commonwealth v. Simmons, 65 Mass. App. Ct. 274, 284 (2005), and we granted…