Thornton v. State

The appellant, George Thornton, a negro soldier at home on furlough, was tried and convicted of the murder of Roy Harrell, his former employer, in Rankin County and was sentenced to death. The proof clearly established both the corpus delicti and the fact that the accused had made a free and voluntary confession of his guilt. Moreover, there were certain facts and circumstances testified to by the witnesses which disclosed that the confession was manifestly true, as for instance shortly after his arrest he had told the officers that immediately following his commission of the crime he had…