Case Summary – Commonwealth v. Adjutant

Case Summary – Commonwealth v. Adjutant (443 Mass. 649, 2005)

Past cases are important to understand, because they can have meaningful implications regarding how your case will play out in court. One of the most important questions any attorney has to answer is – “what evidence will be allowed in court?” For obvious reasons, the evidence that a judge allows, or does not allow, can determine the outcome of the case. One of the important cases in this area of law is Commonwealth v. Adjutant, 443 Mass. 649 (2005).

Rhonda Adjutant was convicted of voluntary manslaughter after she killed Stephen Whiting, a client of the escort service where Ms. Adjutant was employed. The issue in the case was whether the judge should have allowed evidence of Mr. Whiting’s reputation and history of violence, even if this information was unknown to Ms. Adjutant at the time of the incident. Ms. Adjutant claimed that she acted in self-defense, so she sought to introduce this evidence to show that Mr. Whiting initiated the attack.

The Supreme Judicial Court decided that trial judges have the discretion to admit such evidence, but the judge must ultimately decide whether the probative value outweighs the prejudicial effect. This means that each judge decides, on a case by case basis, whether to admit evidence of prior acts of aggression committed by the victim. The defense must convince the judge that such evidence supports an inference that the victim started the altercation. Although the underlying case deals with a manslaughter charge, this principle applies to any case in which the defendant raises self defense. This is one of the many reasons it is important to have any attorney review all the evidence in your case, including any evidence you intend to bring into court.

If you have a pending legal matter contact Mone Law today! Attorney Mone is a zealous advocate for all of her clients! Mone Law has office in Springfield and Northampton and serves Hampshire, Hampden and Franklin County courts.