Title: Ferreira v. Superintendent, Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Norfolk

State: massachusetts

Issuer: Massachusetts Supreme Court

Document:

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SJC-12971 
 
ANTONIO MARCOS FERREIRA  vs.  SUPERINTENDENT, MASSACHUSETTS 
CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, NORFOLK. 
 
 
August 13, 2020. 
 
 
Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.  
Habeas Corpus. 
 
 
 
The petitioner, Antonio Marcos Ferreira, appeals from a 
judgment of a single justice of this court denying his petition 
pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3.  We affirm. 
 
 
Ferreira was convicted of murder in the first degree in 
2012, and we affirmed his conviction.  See Commonwealth v. 
Ferreira, 481 Mass. 641, 642 (2019).  In May 2020, he filed, in 
the county court, a "petition for a writ of habeas corpus," in 
which he sought release from prison on the basis of the COVID-19 
pandemic.  The single justice treated the petition as having 
been filed pursuant to G. L. c. 211, § 3, and denied it without 
a hearing. 
 
 
Ferreira has now filed a memorandum and appendix pursuant 
to S.J.C. Rule 2:21, as amended, 434 Mass. 1301 (2001), but that 
rule does not apply in this situation because Ferreira is not 
challenging any interlocutory ruling of the trial court.  
Indeed, he is not challenging any ruling of the trial court at 
all.  As best we can tell from the very limited record before 
us, Ferreira has not sought relief in the trial court; rather, 
he simply filed his petition for relief directly in the county 
court.  The one-page petition that Ferreira filed in the county 
court stated, summarily, that he should be released in light of 
the COVID-19 pandemic on the basis of his medical conditions.  
Although he included a brief medical assessment from the medical 
director of the prison in which he is incarcerated, he provided 
 
 
no legal argument whatsoever.  The single justice did not err or 
abuse his discretion in denying relief. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
 
 
The case was submitted on the papers filed, accompanied by 
a memorandum of law. 
 
Antonio Marcos Ferreira, pro se.