Commonwealth v. Joyce

The defendant was tried before a jury in the Superior Court and convicted on charges of rape and commission of an unnatural and lascivious act. He appeals from these convictions pursuant to G. L. c. 278, §§ 33A - 33G. We transferred the appeal here on our own motion.

The defendant raises three issues: first, that the trial judge improperly excluded a line of questioning by defense counsel intended to show bias of the complaining witness; *223second, that since the prosecution’s use of peremptory challenges violated the principles enunciated in Commonwealth v. Soares, 377 Mass. 461, cert, denied,…