Commonwealth v. Gibbs

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Drew,

On January 10, 1950, Marian Louise Baker was brutally slain by being beaten to death with a lug wrench. Eight days later Edward Lester Gibbs, defendant, confessed the killing. Thereafter, he was indicted in Lancaster County, tried by a jury, and convicted of murder in the first degree with the penalty fixed at death. Prior to his bringing this appeal, his motion for, new trial was denied and sentence was imposed in accordance with the verdict.

At the tiine of the killing, defendant, a married war veteran twenty-five years of age, was a student at Franklin &…