Ashworth v. Hatcher

Litz, Judge.-

Emma Houchins, having been indicted in the criminal court of Raleigh county f.or the murder of Lewis Romans and Emma Carter, was tried for the murder of Emma Carter and acquitted. On her subsequent arraignment for the murder of Lewis Romans, she tendered a plea of autrefois acquit, averring that Emma Carter and Lewis Romans had met their deaths from stray pistol shots fired rapidly by the accused while defending herself against a felonious attack at the hands of Anna Romans; and that her acquittal in the one case was a bar to prosecution in the other. A demurrer to the plea…