Mass. Supreme Judicial Court hears challenge to admitting prior felony to prove lack of firearm license

The Supreme Judicial Court heard oral argument in Commonwealth v. Boymott Collins about whether a prosecution may introduce a defendant’s prior felony conviction to prove that he lacked a firearm license.

Defense attorney Matthew Zendroski, representing Boymott Collins, told the court that “the probative value of the evidence of the prior felony conviction was not outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice” and argued the ruling below improperly allowed the Commonwealth to tell the jury the defendant was a “convicted felon.” Zendroski urged that the Commonwealth should instead prove lack of licensure through CJIS records or other less prejudicial means and questioned the sufficiency of identification evidence from an older docket, saying the prosecution failed to establish that the person in the earlier file was the same individual at trial.

Assistant…