Commonwealth v. Melton

Opinion by

Mb. Chief Justice Jones,

The defendant was found guilty of murder in the first degree by a jury’s verdict which fixed the pen alty at death. The court en banc granted the defendant’s motion for a new trial on the ground that the aggregate of untoward events happening at trial, including emotional outbursts by the bereaved husband of the homicide victim, the introduction in evidence of bloody color slides and the fact that the jury was drawn from a panel which had previously heard the defendant plead guilty before a three-judge court, “created such an inflammatory atmosphere that the…