Commonwealth v. Shepherd, 493 Mass. 512

Rashad Shepherd was convicted of first-degree felony-murder following the fatal shooting of Wilner Parisse during a botched robbery in Lynn, Massachusetts, in August 2014.
The robbery was planned by Shepherd, Terrence Tyler, and Monique Jones, with Jones luring the victim under a pretense, and Tyler and Shepherd intending to steal marijuana from Parisse’s apartment.
After a struggle with the victim, Parisse was shot and killed. The prosecution posited that Shepherd was the shooter based on witness testimony and circumstantial evidence.
In April 2016, Shepherd was convicted before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court abolished felony-murder as an independent theory of liability in Commonwealth v. Brown (2017).
Shepherd filed multiple motions for a new trial, appealing on the basis of retroactivity of the Brown decision, alleged equal protection violations due to racial disparities in sentencing, improper jury instructions, judicial bias, and ineffective assistance of counsel.

Issue	Shepherd’s Argument	Commonwealth's Argument	Held
Retroactive Application of Brown	Brown’s abolition of independent felony-murder should apply retroactively, especially because of racial disparities	Brown’s holding was intended to be prospective only, not retroactive; the rule at Shepherd’s trial was constitutional	Brown does not apply retroactively; prospective application is rational and constitutional
Equal Protection	Only prospective application of Brown violates equal protection due to disparate racial impact	Application of Brown was race-neutral and no discriminatory intent present	No equal protection violation absent discriminatory intent; disparate impact alone is insufficient
Jury Instructions & Judicial Conduct	Instructions on cooperating witness and judge’s conduct improperly favored prosecution; faulty hypotheticals	Instructions were legally sufficient and judge’s conduct did not show bias or affect fairness	No reversible error in instructions or judicial conduct found
Ineffective Counsel	Counsel failed to consult experts, adequately prepare, and call important witnesses	Counsel’s actions were strategic; proper cross-examination, and no manifestly unreasonable decisions	No substantial likelihood of miscarriage of justice; ineffective assistance claim rejected

Commonwealth v. Brown, 477 Mass. 805 (Mass. 2017) (abolished felony-murder as an independent theory of liability prospectively)
Commonwealth v. Pfeiffer, 492 Mass. 440 (Mass. 2023) (reiterated prospective-only application of Brown)
Commonwealth v. Martin, 484 Mass. 634 (Mass. 2020) (explored the rationale supporting Brown’s prospective application)
Commonwealth v. Fernandes, 492 Mass. 469 (Mass. 2023) (standards for review of preserved and unpreserved issues on appeal)
Commonwealth v. Bin, 480 Mass. 665 (Mass. 2018) (admissibility of CSLI data and related exhibits)