New trial ordered for 2012 Roxbury murder because judge didn't make prosecutor prove potential juror wasn't excluded for racial reasons

The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered a new trial for Maurice Jones, who was convicted of repeatedly and fatally shooting Dinorris Alston as he sat in with his girlfriend in her car on Dunreath Street on April 17, 2012.

The court ruled that while the evidence against Jones was not the most conclusive it had seen, it was still good enough to warrant conviction in 2015. But the judge in the case committed an unconstitutional mistake by letting a Suffolk County prosecutor have a potential juror who was black dismissed from consideration without proving it was not for racial reasons, the state's highest court ruled.

Jones's lawyer demanded proof the dismissal was not racially biased after the assistant DA used similar "peremptory challenges" against five other potential jurors who were black, but the judge ruled against Jones, saying the jury being assembled already had one black member.

Big mistake, the SJC ruled. That the prosecutor had peremptorily challenged five other prospective jurors who were black was enough of a possible case of discrimination to warrant extra attention to the dismissal of other prospective black jurors if requested by the defense attorney, the court said.

And proving race was not a factor "is not an onerous task," the court continued, noting that one of the other black people considered as a juror was dismissed because English was not his native language and he seemed to have trouble with his English comprehension. In contrast, the justices were unable to see what made the juror who was dismissed in question in the appeal different from people who were empaneled - except for race.

A new trial would be Jones's third for Alston's murder and his girlfriend's shooting. In 2014, a jury deadlocked in the case.