Commonwealth v. Kater

We address for the third time the Commonwealth’s prosecution of James M. Kater for the murder of Mary Lou Arruda. The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree and kidnapping in 1979. In 1983, we reversed those convictions and remanded the case because the prosecution had introduced hypnotically-aided testimony. Commonwealth v. Kater, 388 Mass. 519 (1983) (Kater I). Preliminary to a retrial, an evidentiary hearing was held on the defendant’s motion to suppress all testimony of the witnesses who had been hypnotized. After hearing part of the evidence, the trial judge concluded that…