Deems v. State

The appellant is under sentence of death' upon a conviction of murder in the first degree. The assault which culminated in the homicide was horrible in its brutality. A deaf -mute woman was the innocent and helpless victim. While walking on a country highway in the early afternoon of a summer: day she was attacked and dragged to a place of seclusion and there denuded, raped, robbed and beaten to death with a club. There could be no doubt that the appellant was the perpetrator of this fiendish deed. In fact, he confessed the homicide, although he denied the rape, claiming that robbery was the…