State v. France

The defendant was indicted in the circuit ■court of St. Clair county for murder in the first degree, at its March term, 1878, for killing William Dickey. He *682was put upon his trial at the March term, 1880, of said court, and was convicted of murder in the second degree, and his punishment assessed at forty years’ imprisonment in the penitentiary, from which judgment he has appealed to this court. As counsel for defendant have not filed a brief in this cause, we are left to an examination of the record for the discovery of reversible error, and upon such examination we find among other things…