Commonwealth v. Carey

I respectfully dissent from the majority’s conclusion that a judge can properly ascertain — sight unseen — the prejudicial and probative character of demonstrative evidence. It is axiomatic that the judge’s obligation to provide a fair trial to a criminal defendant requires attentiveness to ensure that jury findings are based on proper evidence, properly admitted, and not on what our cases refer to as “inflamed emotions.” See Commonwealth v. Berry, 420 Mass. 95, 109 (1995) (“trial judges must take care to avoid exposing the jury unnecessarily to inflammatory material that might inflame the…