Bobo v. Commonwealth

The accused, Ernest Bobo, was tried by a jury, convicted of murder in the first degree, and his punishment fixed at death. The trial court approved the verdict and accordingly sentenced him to death.

Bobo had been arrested on March 12, 1947, by the sheriff and Mr. Lewis, his deputy, for vagrancy, and also on suspicion that he was a fugitive from South Carolina. He was placed in jail but not in a cell. Later on the same day the trial justice issued a warrant against him charging vagrancy. In the afternoon of March 12, Deputy Sheriff Lewis went into the jail with the janitor to allow the janitor…