Appeals court hears challenge to trial judge’s handling of jury deadlocks and disputed video evidence in Commonwealth v. Curtis Stubbs

The Massachusetts Appeals Court on an oral-argument panel heard arguments in Commonwealth v. Curtis Stubbs over whether the trial judge erred after jurors sent three notes saying they were deadlocked and over the sufficiency of video and identification evidence used at trial.

Curtis Stubbs, the defendant in the underlying criminal case, told the panel he objected when the trial judge declined to dismiss the jury after the third deadlock and instead allowed a brief period in which jurors continued to deliberate off the record. "Section 68(c) ... stands far to prevent jurors from being coerced," Stubbs said, arguing the judge failed to follow what he identified as the statutory mandate and that the delay coerced jurors. He also told the court, "My case is devoid of any whatsoever of direct evidence connecting me to the case," and said the prosecution’s case relied on weak circumstantial evidence and a disputed video identification.

Assistant District Attorney Kristen Jang, arguing for the Commonwealth, told the panel she saw no error in how the trial judge, Judge Lang,…