Mitchell v. State

BOWEN W. SIMMONS, Supernumerary Circuit Judge.

Appellant-defendant, an indigent with appointed counsel here and in the nisi prius court, was indicted for 'second degree murder, convicted therefor, and sentenced by the jury to forty (40) years in the penitentiary. The victim was Jessie Maddox.

It appears from the evidence of the state that the appellant in the late afternoon of Sunday, April 29, 1973, left his home, armed with a kitchen butcher knife, and upon reaching the home of Gloria Petty (both houses being in Opelika, Lee County, Alabama) he encountered Edward Melvin (Tim) Dowdell, who as…