Voudrie v. State

The defendant was indicted for the first degree murder of his wife. A jury convicted him of murder in the second degree and fixed sentence at ninety-nine years' imprisonment.

I

At trial the State introduced statements made by Mrs. Voudrie, the defendant's wife, to the police after she had been shot. The defendant contends that this testimony did not qualify as a dying declaration because Mrs. Voudrie exhibited "no settled hopeless expectation of impending death."

The uncontradicted evidence shows that on February 2, 1977, the defendant and his wife were divorced. Early Sunday morning, March 21,…