O'Dear v. State

OPINION

COOPER, Justice.

William McKinley O’Dear was tried in the Grundy County Criminal Court in December, 1972, for the alleged murder of Dolphus C. Pickett. The jury found Mr. O’Dear guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed his punishment at twenty years and a day in the State Penitentiary. Sentence was pronounced accordingly. On appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction. A petition for cer-tiorari was filed, raising the same issues considered by the Court of Criminal Appeals. The petition was granted, but for the limited purpose of considering:

“(1) Whether the…