Commonwealth v. Boucher

The defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, G. L. c. 265, § 1, on a theory of extreme atrocity or cruelty in the May 27, 2010, shooting death of James Tigges at a party in Plymouth. The defendant also was convicted of armed assault with intent to murder, and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, in the shooting of Tigges’s friend, Jackson Duncan, who was paralyzed from the chest down when a bullet severed his spinal cord.

On appeal, the defendant contends that the judge’s instructions as to the manner in which the jury could consider evidence of mental impairment…