Court Opinion

ID: 9527674
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:32:38.211038+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:03.882125
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting). The court today sets forth certain unimpeachable propositions. Among the more relevant such propositions is that the spiritual treatment provisions of *131G. L. c. 273, § 1 (1992 ed.), are no defense to common law manslaughter, the subject of the indictments in these cases.
The Attorney General’s opinion refers to the spiritual treatment provisions of the statute and deals exclusively with negligence (“failure” to provide). The Attorney General’s opinion does not reach homicide charges against parents and for this reason, the court is improperly straining in concluding that the opinion might be read in a manner that “invites a conclusion that parents who fail to provide medical services to children on the basis of religious beliefs are not subject to criminal prosecution in any circumstances.” Ante at 127.
To focus on the precise issue, the error that the court assigns as the basis for reversal is the exclusion from evidence of a Christian Science publication that quoted the opinion of the Attorney General in part without ever identifying the source of language as being part of the Attorney General’s opinion. The defendants were not even aware of the opinion of the Attorney General and they relied entirely on the church’s publication. However, even this publication does not exclude criminal liability for common law manslaughter. The defendants offered the publication in evidence and objected to its exclusion but, curiously, they did not argue that the exclusion was error. The reason for their failure so to argue, I believe, was their realization that it was not error to exclude it and in this regard, they were correct. The publication was properly excluded because it was not competent evidence on the issue of manslaughter. For this reason, the defendants’ reliance on it is not relevant and it should not be considered by a jury. Accordingly, I dissent.