State v. LaChance

OPINION

HENRY, Justice.

Respondent, Clyde LaChance, was convicted in the Law Court at Ducktown of murder in the first degree and sentenced to ninety-nine years and one day in the State Penitentiary. The Court of Criminal Appeals, in a divided opinion, reduced the grade of the crime to second degree murder and fixed his punishment at the statutory minimum of ten years, provided the State indicated its consent. Absent the incoming of the State’s consent the judgment would be reversed and the case remanded for a new trial pursuant to Forsha v. State, 183 Tenn. 604, 194 S.W.2d 463 (1946). The State…