Commonwealth v. Pina

This case arises from a February 26, 1993, shooting death in the Mission Hill housing development in Boston. According to evidence presented at trial, both the victim and the defendant had been involved in distributing drugs in and around the Mission Hill development.1 The defendant relied on a defense of misidentification. The jury convicted the defendant of unlawful possession of a firearm and murder in the first degree on a theory of deliberate premeditation. On appeal, the defendant argues that (1) the prosecutor exceeded the bounds of permissible argument during his closing; the judge…