State v. Harris

BARRETT, Commissioner.

On January 18, 1956, when Louise Okee, now described by the appellant Phillip K. Harris as “his lady friend,” attempted to terminate their illicit relationship (he was then married and the father of seven children), he beat her to death with “a steel car jack.” The circumstances in which the appellant Harris beat Louise to death, an irrefutable fact that he did not deny either then or now, were such that he was first charged with murder in the first degree. Subsequently an amended information was filed charging the appellant with murder in the second degree, whereupon,…