United States v. James M. Hendrix

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge:

Appellant was convicted of second degree murder under 18 U.S.C. § 1111 for the killing of a fellow crewman on the S.S. Eagle Voyager while it was docked at the port of Odessa, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. We need not review the details of the slaying, except to state that it was a bloody and brutal affair.

Appellant’s defense was premised on the claim of insanity, and it is in the court’s charge relative to this defense that reversible error is claimed to have occurred. The District Judge instructed the jury correctly that the burden of proof was on the…