State v. Hamilton

SUMMERS, Justice.

Thomas Joseph Hamilton is appealing from his conviction and sentence for manslaughter. The indictment of the grand jury of Calcasieu Parish charges that on January 23, 1965 he killed one Robert Leger “in sudden passion and heat of blood immediately caused by provocation sufficient to deprive an average person of his self-control and cool reflection.”

In a ' jury trial held in October 1965 Hamilton sought to establish self-defense or accidental killing as justification, but he was found guilty as charged and sentenced to eight years at hard labor in the penitentiary. A number…