Hinton v. Commonwealth

Defendant Frank L. Hinton, convicted by a jury of malicious wounding, appeals the May 1977 final order which sentenced him in accordance with the verdict to 20 years’ imprisonment. We have limited the writ of error to consideration of whether the trial court misinstructed the jury in response to a question concerning parole eligibility of a person sentenced to the penitentiary.

The issue arose in the following manner. After deliberating for about one and one-half hours, the jury returned to the courtroom with an inquiry for the trial judge. The foreman stated: “Your Honor, the question was…