State v. Maguire

HENRIOD, Justice:

Appeal from a second-degree murder conviction by the court after defendant had waived a jury on his own motion. Affirmed.

Defendant had been charged with first-degree murder, but the trial court, on the strength of Furman v. Georgia, 1 advised defendant and his counsel that he considered the death penalty had been abolished by that case, 2 and hence dismissed the first-degree murder charge.

Defendant says 1) that his waiver of the jury trial was not knowingly or intelligently given, 2) that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction, and that anyway 3) the lower…