Commonwealth v. Johnston

In this appeal, we examine the considerable complexity arising from decisional law that defines “malice” for the crime of assault with intent to murder differently from “malice” for the crime of murder. A jury found the defendant guilty of armed assault with intent to murder based on an incident that occurred at his wife’s workplace on December 17, 2002. On appeal, the defendant maintains that because the jury heard evidence of his fragile emotional state in the week prior to the incident, a substantial risk of a miscarriage of justice arises from the trial judge’s failure to instruct, sua…