People v. Lyons

The defendants, Claude Griffith and Donald Lyons, were indicted and tiled together for the crime of murder in the Circuit Court of Madison County. A jury returned a verdict of attempted murder against Griffith and aggravated batteiy against Lyons, and they were sentenced to the penitentiary respectively for terms of 15 to 20 years and 8 to 10 years. Separate appeals have been filed by each defendant, and we have consolidated them for purposes of review.

The main thrust of each appeal is that defendants were not proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and that the court erred in instructing the…