Thomas v. Commonwealth

The defendant, Ephriam Thomas, was tried and convicted by a jury of murder in the first degree and his punishment fixed at death. He was sentenced on that verdict. We are asked to reverse the judgment because of insufficiency of the evidence and because the jury were not instructed on involuntary manslaughter.

The killing occurred on the night of February 2, 1946, *134not long after eight o’clock. A short time prior to the killing the defendant hailed and got into a taxicab, then being operated by Frank Holloway, on the old Norfolk road near Suffolk. He had been drinking but was not drunk. He was…