Drye v. State

This appeal is from a conviction of murder in the first degree, with a prison sentence of twenty-five years. Drye shot and killed his wife. His defense, brought here by assignments of error, is (1) that there was an absence of criminal responsibility because of insanity, and (2) that the killing was in passion under provocation and, therefore, not murder in the first degree. '

Drye is a veteran of the first World War. He entered the Army in 1915 and was honorably discharged as mentally unsound, his condition being then diagnosed as dementia praecox. He was in and out of various Government…