Hale v. Commonwealth

The plaintiff in error has been found guilty of murder in the second degree and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of twenty years.

Prior to the homicide, Sylvester Peacock, the deceased, lived with his wife and two daughters in the city of Portsmouth. The accused, a young man twenty-three years of age, was a welcome and frequent visitor in their home, where he was apparently paying attention to Margaret Peacock Weaver, one of the daughters, who was separated, but not divorced from her husband. There is no suggestion of any ill will between the accused and the deceased before the…