State v. Roland

Willie Roland was found guilty of the murder of E.C. Shane in the first degree, and his punishment was assessed at death. He appeals from the judgment thereon.

The evidence shows that Willie Roland, defendant, Willie Easley, Mitchell Connors, Clopton Ware and James Goodrich, all colored, planned to break into and rob a freight car of a certain Chicago, Rock Island Pacific Railway Company freight train running out of St. Louis towards Kansas City on the night of April 16, 1934, and to accomplish that purpose boarded a Rock Island train in or near St. Louis that evening about ten P.M. The…