# Commonwealth v. Sanchez

> Massachusetts Appeals Court · April 1, 2011 · 79 Mass. App. Ct. 189

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6463994

## Case

- **Full name:** Commonwealth v. Dagoberto Sanchez
- **Court:** Massachusetts Appeals Court
- **Decided:** April 1, 2011
- **Citations:** 79 Mass. App. Ct. 189; 944 N.E.2d 625; 2011 Mass. App. LEXIS 454
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Brown
- **Judges:** Brown, Vuono
- **Cited by:** 6 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6463994

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- noting the jury "received multiple versions of the instructions over two days”

## Opinion text

Brown, J.
(concurring). Apart from the troubling fact that a manslaughter instruction was neither given nor requested, I am of opinion that this case can be affirmed simply on the basis of the defendant’s status as the initial aggressive user of deadly force — a handgun. 1 Neither the defense of another nor the failure to retreat, in my view, enters into the calculus.
As an additional aside, I think the judge’s handling of the peremptory challenge issue would have been more efficacious if he had followed the teachings of Commonwealth v. Futch, 38 Mass. App. Ct. 174, 177-178 (1995), and cases cited therein.
kfiie teaching point here is “sticks and stones” may break bones, but a loaded handgun will very likely kill a person.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/6463994. Public record. Not legal advice.