In the case of Commonwealth v. Miller, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts found that the trial judge committed reversible error for not conducting an evidentiary voir dire hearing re the voluntariness of the confession. "In this case, tried to a jury in the District Court, it was very much a live issue whether the defendant's confession was of free will and rational intellect, or instead was elicited by oppressive interrogation techniques of the in-house investigators of the defendant's employer, Home Depot. "Once a defendant has presented evidence that the statements at issue were made involuntarily, the burden is on the Commonwealth to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the statements were made voluntarily." Commonwealth v. Selby, 420 Mass. 656, 663, 651 N.E.2d 843 (1995). Notwithstanding troubling evidence concerning isolation*837 and coercive questioning-enhanced in effect by the defendant's mental condition and distraught reactions-the trial judge did not conduct an evidentiary voir dire hearing, and did not independently assess the voluntariness of the confession. Instead, the judge reasoned, such issues were to be left for the jury's deliberation.

In the absence of the defendant's confession, the Commonwealth's proof of the defendant's guilt was far from strong, and from all that appears in the record, the defendant's confession was integral to conviction. Because the confession was critical evidence, perhaps outcome determinative, we reverse."