People v. Purvis

Defendant was charged with the murder of Mrs. Hazel Wilson. He entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. A jury found him guilty of murder of the first degree, fixed the penalty at death, and found that he was sane at the time of the commission of the crime. The trial court denied defendant’s motion for a new trial and sentenced him to death. This appeal is automatic. (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b).)

In 1950 defendant was convicted of the second degree murder of his wife and sentenced to prison. He was paroled in 1954 and returned to Oakland. On December 19, 1957, he…