State v. Severns

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Parker, C. J.:

This is the second appearance in this court of an appeal by Walter Ray Severns in a criminal action, the present appeal being from a conviction of murder in the second degree.

A historical review of the background of this criminal prosecution from the date of its inception is essential to a proper under standing of the events and circumstances giving rise to the instant appeal.

In 1943 the defendant, after having been first examined and found sane by a sanity commission, was tried in the district court of Sedgwick County on an information…