Commonwealth v. Robert O'Brien

Evidence, Recross-examination, Cross-examination, Present recollection refresehed. Constitutional Law, Confrontation of witnesses. LIACOS, C.J. The defendant was indicted on a charge of murder in the first degree. After a jury trial, the defendant was convicted, on March 29, 1989, of the lesser crime of involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to from nineteen to twenty years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction. The defendant filed a timely notice of appeal. The Appeals Court, in an unreported decision pursuant to its Rule 1:28, affirmed the conviction. 36 Mass. App. Ct. 1104 (1994). We granted the defendant's application for further appellate review. The defendant argues that the trial Judge erred in (1) refusing his request to recross-examine the victim's mother, Carol Shanahan and (2) prohibiting his inspection of a document used by the prosecution to refresh the recollection of Carol Shanahan on the witness stand. We find no reversible error. We affirm the conviction.