CAMBRIDGE - Whether former Harvard graduate student Alexander Pring-Wilson gets a new trial for stabbing a teenager to death in Cambridge could hinge on the definition of one word: prospectively.
Convicted of manslaughter eight months ago, Pring-Wilson is now asking a judge to set aside the verdict, based on a ruling in March by the state's highest court that made it easier for criminal defendants to contend they acted in self-defense. But the SJC said that its decision "shall apply only prospectively," or only to future cases.
Yesterday, Charles W. Rankin, a lawyer for Pring-Wilson, argued to Middlesex Superior Court Judge Regina L. Quinlan that the SJC ruling warrants a new trial for his client. Rankin said the SJC meant the ruling to apply not just to future defendants but to anyone whose conviction awaited the review of state appeals courts, such as Pring-Wilson.
But Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Adrienne C. Lynch countered that the SJC "couldn't have made it clearer" that its ruling applied only to cases that had not yet gone to trial.
Details here from The Boston Globe via LexisONE.com.