Paul Murphy v. State of Mississippi

The appellant was indicted by the Grand Jury of Lee County, Mississippi, for the crime of rape of a female child under the age of twelve years and, after preliminary sanity examination, he was tried, convicted and sentenced to serve a term of his natural life in the state penitentiary. From this judgment of conviction and sentence he has appealed to this Court and now contends that he should be granted a new trial because, it is said, (1) the trial court permitted the States attorney to ask the prospective jurors improper questions on voir dire; (2) the trial court should have directed a verdict of acquittal at the close of the prosecutions case; (3) the trial court should not have granted the "do not have to know" instruction; (4) the court erroneously permitted the State to recall the prosecutrix for other evidence after the court had recessed.