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Mass. court hears challenge to authentication of Brockton docket in Shaw appeal
Summary
At the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, defense counsel argued a Brockton District Court docket printout lacked the required written attestation and so was inadmissible; the Commonwealth said the clerk magistrate’s signature and the court’s raised seal satisfied Rule 40 and that the defendant showed no prejudice.
At a session of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Haley Jacobson, attorney for Jose M. Shaw, argued that a Brockton District Court docket printout offered at Shaw’s trial (Exhibit 1) was not properly authenticated because it lacked a written attestation certifying that the copy was compared with an original. "Without that attestation, exhibit 1 was not properly authenticated, and it was not admissible and should not have been admitted," Jacobson told the court.
Jacobson urged the court to vacate the sentence enhancement tied to a predicate offense because, she said, the docket printout was the only evidence introduced at trial to prove that element. Jacobson argued the raised clerk’s seal and a signature do not show that any…
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