Williams v. State

RoBisraoüí, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The plaintiff in error was tried in the Circuit Court for Howard County, on an indictment for murder; and the jury, when they came to the bar to deliver their verdict, declared by their foreman, that he was guilty of murder in the first degree. Before the verdict was recorded, the plaintiff in error demanded a poll of the jury; and each juror, when called upon to answer for himself and in his own language, responded “ guilty,” without specifying the degree of murder. Now, murder in the first degree is punishable by death, and murder in the…