Burman v. Commonwealth

Opinion of the Court by

Sims, Commissioner

Reversing.

Eugene Burnam, a negro boy 15 or 16 years of age (there being some conflict in the evidence as to the year of his birth), was tried on an indictment charging him with rape by force and against the will and consent of his victim, a crime denounced by Section 1154, Kentucky Statutes. The trial resulted in his conviction, the jury fixed his punishment at death, and he appeals from the judgment entered on that verdict.

While four alleged errors are complained of in his motion and grounds for a new trial, he abandoned all of them in his brief but…