Patterson v. Commonwealth

^he plaintiff in error is a negro. He was indicted for killing a man whom the negro witnesses describe as *594“the Jew,” was tried, convicted of murder of the first degree, and sentenced to be electrocuted. Most of the witnesses for and against him were also negroes, and a very ignorant set. Some of them were unable to tell their ages, or the time by the clock, and one of them could not tell whether five minutes or ten minutes were the longer time. Many of their statements seemed highly improbable, and they had very inadequate id,eas of time or distance, and yet they did not hesitate to give…