State v. Upton

KIKER, Justice.

This is an appeal from a conviction of murder in the first degree for which a sentence of death by electrocution has been imposed. Appellant bases his appeal upon three grounds which will be set out and determined after the facts are briefly stated.

On September 10, 1954, 'James Larry Upton, the appellant, was hitchhiking from Nowata, Oklahoma, 'to Los Angeles, California. At about eight-thirty that morning he was picked up on the outskirts of Amarillo, Texas by an Air Force Corporal, Donald T. Dilley, who was driving to Salt Lake City, Utah, by way of Albuquerque, New Mexico.…