State v. Logan

Lewis, Chief Justice:

The sole question presented in this appeal involves the applicability of the current death penalty statute to a crime committed prior to its effective date.

A brief history of our present death penalty statute for murder, as influenced by court decisions, is necessary in order to focus upon the issue now before the Court.

*253The long established public policy o£ this State, with refer-enc to the death penalty for murder, was set forth in Section 16-52 of the 1962 Code of Laws, which provided that “whoever is guilty of murder shall suffer the punishment of death,” but upon…