Ferrell v. Commonwealth

George Ferrell has been indicted for murder, tried, found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to a five-year term in the penitentiary. He is about sixty years old and for the past thirty years has been an employee of the Lynchburg Foundry Company. His reputation is excellent, and he appears to have heretofore conducted himself as a law-abiding citizen. The evidence upon which his conviction rests is circumstantial.

Irvin Thornhill was murdered at his home on December 9,1938, at about half-past seven o ’clock at night. He had gone to an outhouse in the backyard for coal, was…