Commonwealth v. Troche

Summary

The court vacated the defendant's convictions because the trial judge abused his discretion by refusing to permit a voir dire of the Commonwealth's key identification witness after defense counsel received information suggesting that the witness had fabricated his identification. The court held that the proposed examination could have authenticated the information and materially affected the witness's credibility, and that the error created a reasonable possibility of prejudice. The court also addressed additional evidentiary and instructional issues for any retrial, concluding that several prosecutorial questions were improper but that the challenged photographs, arrest instruction, and most of the closing argument presented no reversible error.