State v. Jennings

The defendant, Joseph Henry Jennings, has appealed from a judgment of conviction of murder in the second degree and from an order denying him a new trial.

In the early morning hours of February 28, 1933, Jennings killed one Eugene Robinson. The facts and circumstances leading up to and surrounding the killing are substantially as follows : Both men were negroes. Robinson stood six feet one inch and weighed 200 pounds; he was fifty-eight years old, possessed “powerful muscles” — a “powerful physique” — was a family man and peaceable when sober, but quarrelsome, aggressive and “mean” when drunk.…