Commonwealth v. Carleton

The defendant, a Roman Catholic priest, was convicted by a jury of the Superior Court of criminal contempt for violating an injunction issued by a judge of the Superior Court prohibiting blocking or in any way obstructing access to any facility in the Commonwealth which provides abortion counseling or services. He received a sentence of two and one-half years to a house of correction. Among the errors he assigns on appeal is his claim that the Commonwealth improperly exercised eleven of its twelve peremptory challenges to exclude prospective jurors who were presumably Roman Catholic.…