# Commonwealth v. Colon-Cruz

> Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · October 18, 1984 · 393 Mass. 150

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9520960

## Case

- **Full name:** Commonwealth vs. Abimael Colon-Cruz (And Two Companion Cases)
- **Court:** Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
- **Decided:** October 18, 1984
- **Citations:** 393 Mass. 150; 470 N.E.2d 116; 1984 Mass. LEXIS 1888
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Wilkins
- **Judges:** Hennessey, Wilkins, Liacos, Abrams, Nolan, Lynch, O'Connor
- **Cited by:** 38 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/9520960

## Opinion text

Wilkins, J.
(dissenting). We should not answer the reported questions. Four years ago, when a district attorney sought this court’s decision on the constitutionality of a capital punishment statute, I said that “I alone among my colleagues believe that this court, in its discretion, should not pass on the constitution *181 ality of the capital punishment statute.” District Attorney for the Suffolk Dist. v. Watson, 381 Mass. 648, 673 (1980) (Wilkins, J., concurring). Two colleagues now agree with me that it is premature to answer questions of the same general character. Post (Nolan, J., dissenting, with whom Lynch, J., joins). They go forward, however, as I did in 1980, to comment on substantive issues. I decline to do so.
The issues should be decided, when and if they arise, in specific cases. The court’s approach unnecessarily “presents a constitutional confrontation between its views and those of the Legislature. I would have preferred not to identify such a conflict unless and until the circumstances of a particular case made it unavoidable.” District Attorney for the Suffolk Dist. v. Watson, supra at 674 (Wilkins, J., concurring).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9520960. Public record. Not legal advice.