State v. Stokes

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Fora, C.:

This case stems from a domestic tragedy which opened with the marriage of the principal characters in 1969 and continued through three tumultuous years. The final scene was played out. on a street corner in Wichita on the evening of May 17, 1972, where the defendant, Elvina Stokes, before an audience of numerous witnesses, shot her husband David three times. One bullet struck his heart, thus bringing down the final curtain on the marriage.

The epilogue has consisted of two murder trials. The first resulted in a hung jury, the second in a…