Durham v. Commonwealth

On January 18, 1966, a grand jury of Dinwiddie county returned an indictment against Luther Durham, Jr., herein called defendant, for the murder of John A. Crocker in that county in February, 1963. Represented by attorneys previously appointed to defend him, he was arraigned on July 21, 1966, and entered a plea of not guilty. A jury heard the evidence, found him guilty of murder in the second degree and fixed his punishment at twenty years in the penitentiary. He was sentenced accordingly and we granted a writ of error to that judgment. The principal, and controlling, question here is whether…