State v. McNish

OPINION

HARBISON, Justice.

Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to death by electrocution. The jury found that the murder by bludgeoning of Mrs. Gladys Smith, a 70-year-old widow, in her apartment on April 5,1983, was “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel in that it involved torture or depravity of mind_” T.C.A. § 39-2-203(i)(5). The case was appealed to this Court pursuant to § 39-2-205. After review of the briefs of counsel and of the record, we are of the opinion that the verdict and the sentence should be affirmed.

Mrs. Smith lived alone in an upstairs…