State v. Miller

Defense counsel, in the brief and in the oral argument, has insisted the trial court committed prejudicial error by permitting the Solicitor to place the defendant on trial for murder in the second degree, after having placed in the record the announcement he would ask for a verdict of guilty of manslaughter only. Had the jury convicted the defendant of murder in the second degree, as it might have under the Court’s charge, a grave question would be presented whether the verdict could stand. But the jury, having convicted of manslaughter only, we are confronted with the question whether…