Hall v. Commonwealth

COMBS, Justice.

John William (Bill) Hall appeals from a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of Alfred Lawhun. The victim was an itinerant one-armed farm hand, nearly 60 years old. He lived with Chester Hall, brother of the defendant Bill Hall, in the Smoky Valley section of Carter county. Bill, who is divorced from his wife, lived with his two children about one-half mile from the home of Chester on land owned by Elwood Stamper. Bill and Chester operated their farms as a joint enterprise and Lawhun had worked for both of them. Sometime prior to the death of Lawhun, Bill and another of…