Commonwealth v. Johnson

On December 21, 1976, the defendant was convicted on indictments charging him with murder in the first degree and armed robbery of Patrick K. Hall. The case is here on appeal pursuant to G. L. c. 278, §§ 33A-33G. We affirm the judgments.

All three assignments of error which have been argued relate to the charge of the trial judge to the jury. The principal one focuses on the judge’s failure to instruct the jury that a voluntary manslaughter verdict is'warranted where excessive force is used in self-defense. However, counsel for the defendant neither requested such an instruction nor objected…