Payne v. State

Appellant was tried on an indictment charging him with murder in the first degree of Clyde Davis, "by shooting him with a pistol." A jury found him guilty of murder in the second degree and fixed his punishment at imprisonment for fifteen years, and the court sentenced him accordingly.

As we find it necessary to reverse the judgment by reason of a single erroneous error of the able and distinguished trial judge, we deem it appropriate to use as a factual background the Statement of Facts appearing in appellee's brief, even though to some extent there is a variance between it and appellant's…