Commonwealth v. Ware

After a jury trial in Superior Court, the defendant, Clarence Ware, was convicted on an indictment charging him with manslaughter as a result of an incident occurring at the VFW Post in the Roxbury section of Boston, in which he shot and killed Herman Franklin.1 On appeal, Ware claims that the trial judge committed reversible error in instructing the jury in such a manner as to suggest that they must convict the defendant of manslaughter even if they found that he had acted with *239reasonable force in self-defense. He also claims that the judge’s instructions on the elements of manslaughter were…