The PEOPLE v. Smith

Defendant was indicted for the murder of William Bradley Garth. He was tried by a jury and found guilty of manslaughter. A new trial was granted. Upon the second trial by jury, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of from 7 to 10 years. His sole contention on this writ of error is that he was deprived of a fair trial by improper argument to the jury.

The allegedly improper and prejudicial statements in the argument of the prosecution fall into two categories. The first concerns references in the prosecution’s argument to an illicit affair…