Burden v. State

Weltner, Justice.

This is a death penalty case involving four murders. On the evening of August 15 and morning of August 16, 1974, four bodies were recovered from Smith’s Pond in Washington County, identified as Louise Wynn and her three children, ages 2,3 and 4. The autopsies revealed that Louise Wynn died from multiple blows to the head; that Marvin, age 4, and James, age 2, died from drowning; and that Melinda, age 3, died from strangulation. Louise was clothed only in an undergarment and a dress torn in half. The crime scene revealed an area of disturbed pine straw, possibly evidencing a…