State v. Boyd

Miller, Justice:

In this appeal from a first degree murder conviction in the Circuit Court of Mercer County, we consider assignments of error as to the use of defendant’s silence for impeachment, the alleged prejudicial conduct of the prosecutor, and the absence of the accused during a hearing at trial. We reverse the conviction on each of these grounds.

On December 1, 1972, the defendant, Jim Boyd, shot and killed James Baldwin while Baldwin was seated in his car in Matoaka, West Virginia, with his nephew, Sammy Rutledge. Rutledge was also shot and was seriously wounded in the same incident.…