Kelly v. Commonwealth

Opinion of the Court by

Judge Stites

Reversing.

Appellant was indicted in Harlan county for the crime of murder, and upon trial was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. He appeals from the judgment of conviction, under which he was sentenced to 21 years’ hard labor.

On August 21, 1934, about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the decedent, J. H. Hall, was talking to one Sherman Bush on the front porch of Bush’s .home. Surrounding the por¡oh, and within a distance of about 20 feet from it, was a cornfield. Without warning, some one fired a 12-gauge shotgun from a point in the cornfield 40 feet from the…