Commonwealth v. Torres

On November 21, 1991, a jury convicted the defendant of deliberately premeditated murder in the first degree. The trial judge sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment.1 On appeal, the defendant asserts that the conviction must be reversed because of several alleged errors in the judge’s instructions to the jury. He also requests that we exercise our power under G. L. c. 278, § 33E (1992 ed.), to reduce the verdict from murder in the first degree to manslaughter. We affirm the conviction. We see no reason to utilize our extraordinary power to reduce the conviction to that of manslaughter.

Th…