Knowles v. State

This is an appeal, taken in forma pauperis, Code, 1947 Supp., Art. 5, sec. 88A, from a conviction, after trial before the court without a jury, of murder in the first degree and sentence to death. At the argument and in his brief, and apparently at the trial, appellant did not deny the killing—or the murder—but only the premeditation necessary to constitute murder in the first degree. On Sunday afternoon, June 13, 1948, a little after six o’clock, near the Columbus monument in Druid Hill park, he killed Ruby Davis by stabbing her 25 times with a knife that he had in his pocket. He was 26, she…