Couch v. Commonwealth

Opinion of the Court by

Turner, Commissioner

Reversing.

Appellant, under indictment charged with the murder of Jesse Smith, was convicted of manslaughter, and has appealed. James Wagers and Jake Wagers were jointly indicted with him, but the prosecution as to them appears to have been discontinued.

The principals and the eye-witnesses reside in the same general locality in Clay county, and are nearly all related, either by blood or marriage, to appellant or Smith, and some to both.

On the day of the homicide there was some excitement in the locality where they lived growing out of the fact that…