Title: Commonwealth v. Johnson
Citation: N/A
Docket Number: SJC-12765
State: Massachusetts
Issuer: Massachusetts Supreme Court
Date: October 17, 2019

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SJC-12765 
 
COMMONWEALTH  vs.  ERVIN JOHNSON. 
 
 
 
October 17, 2019. 
 
 
Practice, Criminal, Capital case, Postconviction relief, Appeal. 
 
 
 
The defendant, Ervin Johnson, was convicted of murder in 
the first degree by reason of extreme atrocity or cruelty.  See 
Commonwealth v. Johnson, 429 Mass. 745 (1999).  He has filed 
several postconviction motions in the trial court, most 
recently, in November 2018, a motion for forensic testing 
pursuant to G. L. c. 278A.  After the motion was denied, Johnson 
applied to a single justice of this court for leave to appeal 
from the denial, pursuant to G. L. c. 278, § 33E.  The single 
justice denied the application.  Johnson has appealed from the 
single justice's ruling and the Commonwealth has moved to 
dismiss the appeal. 
 
 
Johnson has no right to appeal from the single justice's 
ruling.  "A single justice, acting as a gatekeeper pursuant to 
G. L. c. 278, § 33E, may allow an appeal to the full court to 
proceed under that statute if the appeal presents a 'new and 
substantial' question."  Commonwealth v. Anderson, 482 Mass. 
1027, 1027 (2019), citing Commonwealth v. Gunter, 459 Mass. 480, 
487, cert. denied, 565 U.S. 868 (2011).  "If the appeal fails on 
either count, and the single justice denies the application, 
that decision 'is final and unreviewable.'"  Anderson, supra, 
quoting Commonwealth v. Gunter, 456 Mass. 1017, 1017 (2010).  
Johnson's attempt to appeal from the single justice's denial of 
his application must therefore be dismissed.1 
                                                 
 
1 To the extent that the defendant suggests, in his 
opposition to the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss the appeal, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Appeal dismissed. 
 
 
 
Ervin Johnson, pro se. 
 
Paul B. Linn, Assistant District Attorney, for the 
Commonwealth. 
                                                 
that the single justice considered his petition pursuant to 
G. L. c. 211, § 3, not, or in addition to, G. L. c. 278, § 33E, 
we note that although the single justice's initial order denying 
the petition did refer to G. L. c. 211, § 3, she subsequently 
issued an amended order referring instead, and correctly, to 
G. L. c. 278, § 33E.