State v. Cannon

Littlejohn, Justice:

The defendant, John Hall Cannon, was tried by a jury and found guilty of murdering his four-year-old half-brother, Edward Holbrook Wyman, Jr. He has appealed, alleging that the judge committed error in admitting his confession into evidence; in ruling that the State’s medical witness was qualified to testify as an expert as to the defendant’s sanity; and in charging the M’Naghten rule to the jury as a test for determining legal sanity.

The defendant is eighteen years old and lived with his grandmother at Conway. Plis father, O’Neil Cannon, also resided at Conway. His…