Craft v. Com.
| Decision Date | 28 April 1950 |
| Citation | 229 S.W.2d 465,312 Ky. 700 |
| Parties | CRAFT v. COMMONWEALTH. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
James A. Hubbs, Louisville, John T. Fowler, Louisville, for appellant.
A. E. Funk, Atty. Gen., Zeb A. Stewart, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.
STANLEY, Commissioner.
The death penalty has been decreed for the appellant, Jake President Craft, for the crime of robbery committed with the use of a deadly weapon. KRS 433.140.
The case is unusual in that there is no contradiction in the evidence. The Commonwealth proved a customer entering a liquor store met two young Negros coming out. She found the clerk, Milton Zimmerman, in a back room seriously wounded. The police soon arrived and quickly arrested men not far away. They had money, whiskey and a wedding ring taken from Zimmerman and the store. The men readily admitted they were the guilty ones. Later Craft signed a confession giving a detailed account of the circumstances. This was read to the jury. Other proof connected him and his companion with the crime. The defendant's testimony was in all respects like his statement. It was in substance that he and another Negro boy, Albert Shelkels, started hunting on the morning of December 23, 1948, and stopped at the liquor store for cigarettes. Craft went in alone and was followed by Shelkels with a shotgun. Upon entering, Shelkels told the clerk, Zimmerman, 'This is a stick-up' and before he could say anything, Shelkels shot him. The defendant testified that there had been no agreement or prearrangement to rob the place and he was surprised when Shelkels came in. He was excited and, not knowing what he did, dragged the wounded man to the back of the store. A customer came in, and he waited upon him. Then he went back to the man and 'the idea struck me of taking the money.' He and Shelkels then took the money out of the cash register and several bottles of whiskey from the shelves. Shelkels went to the back room and got Zimmerman's wallet and ring. He proved he had borne a good reputation.
The Commonwealth had quite satisfactorily and sufficiently proved the defendant's guilt; also, that Zimmerman had died without having regained consciousness. A police photographer presented several pictures of the scene of the robbery, of this defendant and his companion, and the taxicab in which they were arrested. Over objection, the officer filed a large photograph of the upper part of the dead man's body which showed stitches all the way across the front and down the middle of the torso. It is ghastly. The court gave this admonition: ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Duguay
...485, 293 P.2d 880; State v. Bischert, 131 Mont. 152, 308 P.2d 969; People v. Jackson, 9 Ill.2d 484, 138 N.E.2d 528; Craft v. Commonwealth, 312 Ky. 700, 229 S.W.2d 465; Oxendine v. State (Okl.Cr.) 335 P.2d 940. Like principles apply to the use of colored and ordinary or non-colored photograp......
-
Ross v. Commonwealth
...the body seven months after the crime showing oozing “decompositional liquid” and red fluid covering the floor); Craft v. Commonwealth, 312 Ky. 700, 229 S.W.2d 465, 466 (1950) (a “ghastly” post-autopsy photograph depicting a shotgun wound that caused death, along with “a great many stitches......
-
Kiefer v. State
...as is reasonably necessary to furnish visual aid to the jury in determining the question of facts presented.' In Craft v. Commonwealth, 1950, 312 Ky. 700, 229 S.W.2d 465, the appellant was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to death. After the robbery appellant Craft was apprehended, ......
-
Hoover v. State
...death, were inadmissible as unnecessary and inflammatory, citing Poe v. Commonwealth, Ky., (1957) 301 S.W.2d 900, Craft v. Commonwealth, Ky., (1950) 312 Ky. 700, 229 S.W.2d 465 and Kiefer v. State (1961), 239 Ind. 103, 153 N.E.2d Although this Court has, upon a few occasions, reversed crimi......