Case Title: Commonwealth v. Monteiro

Citation: 

Docket Number: SJC-12263

State: massachusetts

Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court

Date: 2019-04-25T00:00:00Z

Document:
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SJC-12263 
 
COMMONWEALTH  vs.  ROBERT E. MONTEIRO. 
 
 
April 25, 2019. 
 
 
Practice, Criminal, Postconviction relief, Capital case.  
Committee for Public Counsel Services. 
 
 
This case is before us on appeal from a single justice's 
denial of a motion filed by Robert E. Monteiro for the 
appointment of counsel in connection with a gatekeeper 
application that he had filed in the county court pursuant to 
G. L. c. 278, § 33E.  We affirm. 
 
Monteiro was convicted of murder in the first degree and 
related charges in 1983, and this court affirmed the convictions 
after plenary review.  See Commonwealth v. Monteiro, 396 Mass. 
123, 125 (1985).  Since then, he has filed several motions in 
the Superior Court for postconviction relief, as summarized by 
this court in Monteiro v. Commonwealth, 473 Mass. 1007, 1007 
(2015).  In that decision, we directed a single justice of this 
court to consider (a) Monteiro's gatekeeper application for 
leave to appeal from the Superior Court's denial of his motion 
for the appointment of counsel to prepare and file a motion for 
forensic testing pursuant to G. L. c. 278A, and (b) his request 
to have counsel appointed for purposes of the G. L. c. 278, 
§ 33E, application.  Id. at 1008. 
 
On remand, the single justice denied Monteiro's gatekeeper 
application and also denied his request for the appointment of 
counsel.  Monteiro appealed.  The Commonwealth filed a motion to 
dismiss his appeal on the ground that the decision of the single 
justice on the gatekeeper application was final and 
unreviewable.  We allowed the appeal to go forward, but only on 
2 
 
 
 
the limited issue of the single justice's denial of Monteiro's 
ancillary motion for the appointment of counsel in connection 
with his G. L. c. 278, § 33E, application.  See Parker v. 
Commonwealth, 448 Mass. 1021, 1022 (2007); Fuller v. 
Commonwealth, 419 Mass. 1002, 1003 (1994). 
 
A defendant does not have a constitutional right to 
appointed counsel in connection with a new trial motion or in 
connection with a G. L. c. 278, § 33E, gatekeeper application.  
See Commonwealth v. Conceicao, 388 Mass. 255, 261 (1983).  See 
also Parker, 448 Mass. at 1023.  In these circumstances, "the 
decision whether to appoint counsel remains discretionary with 
the judge," and this court will review a decision declining to 
appoint counsel only for an abuse of discretion and to determine 
whether it "deprive[d] an indigent defendant of meaningful 
access [to postconviction review] . . . or result[ed] in 
fundamental unfairness."  Conceicao, supra at 262. 
 
Here, Monteiro has failed to show that the single justice 
abused her discretion, or that the denial of appointed counsel 
deprived him of meaningful access to review of his gatekeeper 
application or resulted in any kind of unfairness.  The single 
justice properly considered, among other things, the fact that 
the Committee for Public Counsel Services had already screened 
Monteiro's case and had declined to provide him with 
representation in 2014, well after the 2012 effective date of 
G. L. c. 278A.  Moreover, the single justice, when acting on the 
gatekeeper application under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, was in a good 
position to assess whether the appointment of counsel might have 
added anything meaningful to the application.  The order denying 
Monteiro's motion for the appointment of counsel is affirmed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So ordered. 
 
 
 
The case was submitted on briefs. 
 
Robert E. Monteiro, pro se. 
 
Paul B. Linn, Assistant District Attorney, for the 
Commonwealth.