Martin v. Commonwealth

*1011The plaintiff in error, Frances M. Martin, was indicted for the murder of her husband, Everett H. Martin. She was tried by a jury and found guilty of murder in the second degree, and her punishment fixed at fifteen years in the penitentiary.

The facts are not in dispute and, stripped of unessential details, may be summarized as follows:

Mrs. Martin and her husband, with their infant child, lived in an humbly furnished dwelling in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, consisting of two rooms and a hall on the second floor and two rooms and a hall on the first floor. Mr. and Mrs. L. L. Light…