People v. Atchley

A jury found defendant guilty of murder in the first degree and fixed the penalty at death. The trial court denied his motion for a new trial and sentenced him to death. This appeal is automatic. (Pen. Code, § 1239, subd. (b).)

Defendant was born in 1917 and was reared in a mountainous community in eastern Tennessee. He attended school only through the third grade and cannot read or write anything except his name. Some time between 1943 and 1946 he moved to California and worked in various localities as an agricultural laborer and a welder. He first met the deceased, Marcella Katherine…