State v. Austin

OPINION

HARBISON, Chief Justice.

Appellant appeals from his conviction as accessory before the fact to murder in the first degree. Following the bifurcated trial procedures set out in the controlling Tennessee statutes, the jury imposed the death penalty. The trial judge concurred, finding the sentence appropriate under the facts.

Appellant was convicted of employing an escaped convict to kill one Julian Watkins, an undercover agent for the Memphis police vice squad, as the result of whose activities indictments had been returned against appellant and a number of his employees and associates in…