State v. Palmer

HAWTHORNE, Justice.

This is an appeal by Robert Palmer, a Negro, who was charged with the murder of his wife, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

Appellant first claims that the trial judge erred in overruling his various motions to quash the indictment. These motions are predicated upon the contentions, first, that there has existed in Orleans Parish since time immemorial a systematic exclusion of Negroes from grand juries, in contravention of constitutional guarantees; and, second, that there were no Negroes on the grand jury which indicted appellant, but that if there were, they were…