Court Opinion

ID: 9743646
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:39:26.091308+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:24:51.635060
License: Public Domain

*630Kirk, J.
(concurring).
I agree that the judgments should be affirmed. I do not agree, however, that the opinion in point 7 states the law correctly under G. L. c. 233, § 21, in a situation where the conviction is of a lesser offence than the one charged in the indictment. Implicit in the opinion is the proposition that the record of his conviction, which must be read to the jury, may include an accusation of a crime of which the witness had not been found guilty or to which he had not pleaded guilty. The proposition is not supported by the cases cited, since they do not concern lesser offence convictions. The proposition is at variance with the first sentence of G. L. c. 233, § 21, which reads, “The conviction of a witness of a crime may be shown to affect his credibility.” ■ The fact of conviction must be shown by the record of conviction. The accusation, however, which may appear in the certified record merely as a recital from the indictment or complaint, is totally irrelevant to the fact of conviction unless the accusation coincides with the verdict or finding or plea of guilty. In a typical case, where the conviction was of a lesser offence than the one charged, it would be sufficient for the prosecutor, with the certified record in his hand (available for examination by the judge, counsel or the witness) to inquire of the witness if he is the same person who, to an indictment returned on a certain day, did on a later certain day plead guilty to (or was found guilty of) so much of the indictment as charged assault and battery. The certified copy should not go to the jury room unless the extraneous matter is expunged. The true “record of his conviction” is thus made known to the jury, and no prejudice beyond that contemplated by the statute is done to the witness. This I believe to be the correct rule and is the one which should be and probably is observed in the Superior Court.
There was, however, in my judgment, no error committed by the judge. The case before us was far from a typical case. The trial took twenty-one trial days. It was marked by erratic, unpredictable and obstreperous conduct by Connolly’s counsel, a lawyer of experience, culminating in *631a contumacious court room castigation of the jury after they had returned their verdicts.1
The transcript discloses the following circumstances attending the admission of the records of conviction. Connolly took the stand on the eighteenth trial day. On direct examination he testified that he was guilty of whatever crimes he had been convicted of, naming some of them.2 On cross-examination, commenced toward the close of the day, the prosecutor offered to show the certified records of conviction to Connolly’s counsel who said he did not want to see them. Later he said that he wanted to see each one. Still later he said that he would object to the reading of them but said that he would give no reason. On the following morning the prosecutor read, despite frequent interruptions by counsel, five records of conviction in each of which it appeared that Connolly had pleaded guilty to the offence as charged in the indictment. Then followed the reading of the record of conviction as recounted in point 7 of the majority opinion and counsel’s demand that a mistrial be declared.
The transcript shows that the judge had reason to believe from defence counsel’s statements that he was familiar with his client’s records of conviction. He had reason to expect in the absence of any seasonable notice to the contrary by counsel that the witness would acknowledge a plea of guilty to the crime as charged in the sixth record as he had to the five which preceded it.3 Having in mind that counsel had earlier said that he would object but would give no reason, the transcript reasonably is susceptible of the interpretation that counsel did know of the objectionable feature, permitted it to be read, and thereupon hoped to get the mistrial which he explosively demanded on the nineteenth day of trial. In these circumstances it should not be said that there was prejudicial error.

 The judge held the attorney in contempt after the jury were discharged.

 The defendant’s admission of prior criminal convictions does not make the admission in evidence of the records of conviction themselves unnecessary, cumulative, or error. Commonwealth v. Subilosky, 352 Mass. 153, 167.

 In all, ten records of conviction were read. In each, except the one in dispute, the witness had pleaded guilty to the charge as framed in the indictment.