Taylor v. State

This appeal is from a conviction of involuntary manslaughter. Plaintiff in error, while acting as a special officer for the Southern Railway, commissioned by the Police Department of Memphis, shot and killed a negro man. It is insisted that the killing was accidental, the unintentional result of a lawful effort exercised with reasonable caution to apprehend one guilty of a felony. There is sharp conflict in the testimony as to certain material details.

The killing occurred about 5:30 A. M., shortly before daylight, at a point just within the yard line of the Southern Railway. Taylor and an…