Church v. Commonwealth

This criminal appeal presents questions concerning the admission of hearsay evidence, the introduction into evidence of communications between husband and wife, and the voluntariness of defendant’s waiver of counsel.

William L. Church was indicted for forcible sodomy and statutory rape, allegedly committed on February 5, 1983, upon a seven-year-old girl. He was found to be indigent, and the court appointed an attorney, R. Donald Ford, to represent him. Both indictments were tried to a jury on November 3, 1983, resulting in a conviction on the charge of forcible sodomy, for which the jury fixed…