State v. Thompson

Defendant was convicted of armed robbery. He has appealed from the judgment of life imprisonment that followed. The troublesome assignment concerns the admission into evidence of a revolver found at the defendant’s home when he was arrested. The problem revolver was a .22 caliber of the type customarily used for target and light sport shooting.

The robbery in question was committed at a supermarket in Medford on the evening of Labor Day, 1959. The act was accomplished in this way: A well dressed man, who shortly proved to be a robber, approached an assistant manager of the store and inquired…