Commonwealth v. Urban

The defendant was convicted by a Superior Court jury of rape (two counts).1 See G. L. c. 265, § 22(b). On appeal, he alleges that the trial judge erred by (1) misstating the law in her charge on the relationship between intoxication and consent; (2) failing to give an instruction on mistake of fact; (3) excluding certain extrajudicial statements; (4) failing to give a proper limiting instruction with respect to fresh complaint evidence; and (5) failing to give an instruction on the trial judge’s role. He also claims that the prosecutor’s closing exceeded the bounds of permissible argument. We…