Townsend v. People

PLAINTIFF in error, to whom we hereinafter refer as defendant, was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death in accordance with a verdict which so prescribed. The victim of the homicide was defendant's wife. The cause of her death was an intercranial hemorrhage and shock following a severe and grievous beating administered by defendant. The plea was not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the homicide and since. Counsel who appears here for defendant, did not participate in the trial below.

The initial onset, a slap on the face of the deceased, was…