Commonwealth v. Ford

A jury convicted the defendant of assault and battery on a correctional officer (G. L. c. 127, § 38B). On appeal the defendant argues (1) that his motion for a required finding of not guilty should have been granted; (2) that the judge’s instructions wrongfully removed from the jury’s consideration certain essential elements of the crime; (3) that the prosecutor committed improprieties in his closing argument; and (4) that certain rulings of the judge allowed prejudicial evidence to be admitted. We vacate the conviction and remand the case for resentencing of the defendant on the lesser…