People v. Groves

The defendant was charged with the murder of his wife and entered a plea of “Not guilty” and “Not guilty by reason of insanity”. On the plea of “Not guilty” he was tried by a jury which returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree with the recommendation of life imprisonment, and subsequently on the plea of “Not guilty by reason of insanity” the same jury returned a finding that the appellant was sane at the time the crime was committed. Upon the hearing of the motion for a new trial, the trial court reduced the offense to murder in the second degree. This appeal is from the…