Hatcher v. Commonwealth

Defendant, Joe Lewis Hatcher, was convicted by a jury of murder in the first degree, and he was sentenced in accordance with the jury’s verdict to fifty years in the penitentiary.

The sole question presented on this appeal is whether the trial court erred in refusing instruction “M” which would have told the jury that if they believed from the evidence that the defendant was in such a degree of drunkenness as to render him incapable of forming a wilful, deliberate and premeditated purpose or intent to kill the deceased, then they could not find him guilty of murder in the first degree.

The…