Raymond J. White v. Commonwealth, 259 N.E.3d 1068

Raymond J. White was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and armed robbery in 1972, along with James Hall. While Hall's convictions were affirmed on direct appeal, White's appeal was never perfected.
In 2014, White sought, unsuccessfully, to reinstate his direct appeal under G.L. c. 211, § 3. The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) denied this, but permitted him to file a motion for a new trial with certain protections regarding appeal rights.
White filed a motion for a new trial in 2023 (pending as of January 2024) and separately moved to stay execution of his sentence, which the Superior Court denied.
Following the denial of his stay, White sought relief from a single justice of the SJC, who also denied the stay. He appealed this decision.
As his appeal was pending, the trial court denied White’s motion for a new trial, but the SJC considered his appeal of the stay denial was not moot owing to unique procedural aspects.

Issue	White's Argument	Commonwealth's Argument	Held
Whether denial of motion to stay execution of sentence was an abuse of discretion	White argued he had meritorious grounds for a new trial, thus entitled to a stay	White failed to show his motion for new trial had a reasonable likelihood of success	No abuse of discretion; denial affirmed
Suppressed evidence: Non-disclosure of a deal with codefendant Clayton	Non-disclosure was prejudicial; could have influenced outcome	Clayton's testimony primarily implicated Hall, not White	No prejudice to White; not likely to succeed on appeal
Constitutionality of reasonable doubt jury instruction	Instruction was unconstitutional, supporting new trial and stay	Issue already reviewed in Hall’s direct appeal without error	No merit; already addressed, no change in law
Seated in prisoner's dock: due process violation	Change in law (Moore, 1979) applies; due process violation	Law relevant only up to White's 1980 escape from custody	No substantial likelihood of miscarriage of justice

Commonwealth v. Nash, 486 Mass. 394 (Mass. 2020) (clarified standards for reviewing motions to stay execution of sentence and standards for appellate review)
Commonwealth v. Moore, 379 Mass. 106 (Mass. 1979) (established standard for seating defendants with counsel unless security reasons prevent)
Commonwealth v. Charles, 466 Mass. 63 (Mass. 2013) (factors for staying execution of sentence during new trial motion proceedings)
White v. Commonwealth, 479 Mass. 1023 (Mass. 2018) (prior SJC treatment of White’s appellate rights and new trial motion procedures)