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Appeals court hears challenge to firearm conviction over CJIS search evidence and unrelated‑investigation testimony
Summary
Joanna Sandman, counsel for Dennis Lassiter Franklin, told the appeals panel that the prosecution failed to show the CJIS database search and date‑of‑birth testimony reliably identified her client as unlicensed to carry, and that unrelated firearms‑investigation testimony prejudiced the jury despite a limiting instruction.
Joanna Sandman, counsel for Dennis Lassiter Franklin, told the appellate panel that the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Quentin Smith is dispositive and that testimony from the CJIS (criminal justice information system) witness lacked probative value in this case. “Where the Commonwealth did not provide substantive evidence that the defendant’s date of birth, there’s insufficient evidence to believe that the defendant was not licensed to carry a firearm,” Sandman argued, and she emphasized that the CJIS witness testified to a search entry of “Dennis Franklin” without establishing that an incomplete or hyphenated name search would reliably return results for “Dennis Lassiter Franklin.”
Sandman…
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