where defendant could not be found to have murdered victim to avoid prosecution for assault and battery of the victim
How later courts described this case
- where defendant could not be found to have murdered victim to avoid prosecution for assault and battery of the victim
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
JOHNSON, Vice Presiding Judge,
specially concurring:
While I specially concur with the decision of the Court herein I feel there are items *235 that must be pointed out relative to my concurrence. The Court has noted by footnote that the trial judge who tried this case, The Hon. Preston Trimble, made the note in his trial notes that the case should be modified from the sentence of death to life imprisonment. This is an exceedingly unpopular type of statement by a trial judge. .
If there is anyone who is in a position to oversee and/or monitor the evidence that comes into a case, it is the trial judge. He has the expertise to look at the evidence from a dispassionate point of view. I believe the trial judge that has the courage to make this sort of recommendation to this Court should be followed. Therefore, I acquiesce to the position of the trial judge and would also vote to affirm the conviction but modify the sentence to life imprisonment.