United States First Circuit

District court's grant of habeas relief is reversed in part, jurisdiction is retained, and question of state law is certified to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court where: 1) the witness's eyewitness testimony together with the other evidence of record could reasonably comprise a constitutionally adequate foundation for defendant's ensuing conviction; and 2) the question of whether allowing a witness's redacted statement into evidence violated plaintiff's Sixth Amendment confrontation rights depends on whether the petitioner's conviction became final in 1996 or 2002, and is certified to the state supreme court to decide.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/29/2009
• Published 06/29/2009

Judges

• SELYA, Circuit Judge., Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, SELYA and SILER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Susanne G. Reardon, Assistant Attorney General, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with whom Martha Coakely, Attorney General, was on brief, for appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• John M. Thompson, with whom Linda J. Thompson and Thompson & Thompson, P.C. were on brief, for appellee.