State v. Johnson

Curtis Lee Johnson appeals from a first-degree murder conviction arising out of a stabbing in a breezeway at the state penitentiary. His defense was an alibi—that he was in the prison cafeteria at the time of the incident.

Mr. Johnson presents nine assignments of error, but his principle contentions concern the advisability of giving an alibi instruction. The court instructed the jury:

A defense interposed by the defendant in this case is an alibi; that is, the defendant was at another place at the identical time the crime was committed.

When the State makes out such a case as would sus 1 tain a…