Commonwealth v. Waters

The defendant appeals from his convictions of murder in the first degree and armed robbery. The defendant’s principal contentions are that the judge failed to conduct voir dire examinations to determine the voluntariness of the defendant’s inculpatory statements made to private persons, failed to instruct the jury properly on voluntariness, erred in admitting a “mug shot” of the defendant and photographs of the victim’s body, and erred in denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial based in part on deprivation of his right to testify at trial. The defendant also urges this court to…