Commonwealth v. Watson

The defendant was convicted of the murder in the first degree of Jeffrey S. Boyajian. He appeals from his conviction, arguing: (1) that his Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated by allegedly improper police conduct with respect to a photographic identification; (2) that the judge abused his discretion in refusing to accept the defendant’s plea of guilty of murder in the second degree; and (3) that justice requires, under G. L. c. 278, § 33E, that we order a new trial, or that we direct the entry of a verdict of a lesser degree of guilt, because the defendant was only vicariously…