Commonwealth v. Bateman

Summary

The court affirmed the defendant's first-degree murder convictions and the denial of his motion for a new trial after rejecting claims concerning jailhouse informants, undisclosed evidence, perjury, jury selection, prosecutorial misconduct, venue, and third-party culprit evidence. It held that the jailhouse witnesses were not government agents when the defendant made his statements, that any discovery violations or instructional deficiencies were nonprejudicial, and that the trial was not infected by reversible error. The court vacated and ordered dismissal of the duplicative armed robbery conviction. The court also found no basis for relief under its plenary review authority.