Nichols v. State

Plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court of Pontotoc county of the crime of murder, and his punishment fixed by the jury at death.

The evidence of the state was that the defendant, a negro, killed Jack Horton, night watchman of the Ada Compress Company, by hitting him on the head and body with a heavy club, thereby crushing his skull and causing immediate .death; that the killing was a most brutal one, the motive being robbery.

Defendant was jointly charged with one Bessie Simpson, a negro woman. Defendant took a severance, and the state elected to…