Drake v. State

SIMPSON, Justice.

Cooper Drake, a twenty-nine-year-old Negro man, was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death by electrocution for the killing of Dale Holley, a four-year-old white boy. This appeal comes under the automatic appeal statute. Title 15, §.382(1) et seq., Code 1940.

The State’s evidence showed that on the afternoon of the homicide, the deceased and his mother, Mrs. Kathleen Holley, were alone at their.home near Calera, Alabama. The house was located in an isolated section of the country near U. S. Highway 31. The defendant forced Mrs. Holley into the house at…