Cowart v. State

SMITH, Justice:

Llewyn J. “Ben” Cowart was convicted of murder in the Circuit Court of Marion County. The jury fixed his punishment at death and, accordingly, he was so sentenced. From that conviction and sentence he has appealed here.

A great deal of appellant’s brief is devoted to an attack upon the death penalty as falling within that category of cruel and unusual punishments prohibited by the United States and Mississippi Constitutions. This Court has rejected that contention in Peterson v. State of Mississippi, 268 So.2d 335 (decision rendered June 19, 1972). However, the decision of the…