Johnson v. State

GARDNER, Chief Justice.

The appeal is from a judgment of conviction for the offense of rape, with infliction of the death penalty. The victim of the assault (Mary Sloan), was a young white woman, eighteen years of age. The crime was committed near 1 A. M. of the morning of January 14th, 1941. The young couple (the husband was also near eighteen), were in bed in their two-room house in the City of Bessemer, with their nine months old baby. A small electric light was left burning in the bedroom.

The husband had left, as usual, a shot gun on the floor by his bed. The rapist at once discovered the…