Overview
- In a unanimous opinion by Justice Serge Georges Jr., the Supreme Judicial Court rejected Nathaniel Fujita’s latest appeal.
- The court affirmed the 2013 first-degree murder verdict on theories of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty.
- Judges denied a new-trial bid and declined to use their extraordinary Section 33E authority to disturb the conviction.
- Applying its Mattis precedent because Fujita was 18 at the time, the court made him eligible to seek parole after 15 years and sent the case back for resentencing to reflect that.
- The ruling cited controlled steps before, during, and after the killing as evidence he appreciated the wrongfulness of his conduct, rejecting claims of psychosis-based lack of criminal responsibility.