Arsenault v. Commonwealth

This proceeding on a writ of error was reserved and reported by the single justice on the petition, the answer, the return of the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, the transcript of the trial in the Superior Court, the findings of the single justice and one assignment of error. The assignment of error is that the judge in the Superior Court “erred in receiving in evidence the fact that. . . [Arsenault] had pleaded guilty to the charge on trial in the Newton District Court while unrepresented by counsel.”

The case as it originally came to us on appeal under G. L. c. 278, §§ 33A-33G, is…