The highest court in Massachusetts will hear arguments this week on whether prosecutors can use recorded jailhouse phone conversations of a teenager charged in the killing of a student at a Sudbury high school.
Lawyers for John Odgren say he was legally insane when he fatally stabbed 15-year-old James Alenson at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in January 2007.
A judge ruled last year that prosecutors improperly obtained more than 30 hours of Odgren's jailhouse conversations.
But prosecutors say they obtained the recordings lawfully. They want to play the recordings at Odgren's trial because they believe the conversations show a lucid boy who was not in the throes of mental illness.
The Supreme Judicial Court will hear prosecutors' appeal on Monday.