Hodge v. Commonwealth

In this homicide case, we consider the impact upon Virginia law of the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Mullaney v. Wilbur, 421 U.S. 684 (1975). There, the Court declared violative of due process a provision of Maine law which had been embodied in the charge to the jury in the murder trial of the accused, Wilbur. The Maine law in question provided that, upon proof by the prosecution of an unlawful and intentional homicide, malice aforethought sufficient to support a conviction of murder and imprisonment for life was conclusively implied; to reduce the offense to…