State v. Bittings
Decision Date | 20 June 1934 |
Docket Number | No. 548.,548. |
Citation | 175 S.E. 299 |
Parties | STATE. v. BITTINGS. |
Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Person County; Devin, Judge.
Emanuel Bittings, alias Spice Bittings, was convicted of murder, and he appeals.
No error.
Criminal prosecution tried upon indictment charging the defendant with the murder of one T. M. Clayton.
The record discloses that on the morning of September 7, 1933, the defendant, a tenant or sharecropper, shot and killed his landlord under circumstances which the jury found to be murder in the first degree.
The evidence on behalf of the state tends to show that the defendant lived in a tenant house about fifty yards from the home of his landlord in Person county; that the two had cultivated some seven or eight acres of corn and tobacco that year on shares, each to get one-half of the crops, and the defendant to furnish himself; that a quantity of tobacco was in the barn on September 7, which it was customary, on taking out of the barn, to put in the packhouse; that instead the defendant, with his two children, was putting the tobacco in his own house; that, upon seeing what was being done, the landlord, accompanied by his wife, went to the home of the defendant and said: "Don't put that tobacco here in this house; there is no room in here; take every stick of it and carry it back to the pack-house"; that the defendant said something in reply, which the wife of the landlord could not understand, but, in consequence of what was said, the landlord turned and remarked: "I have got no more to say, " and started away from the house; that the defendant thereupon got his shotgun from over the door and shot the landlord, hitting him in the right side of the neck and killing him instantly.
It is also in evidence that throughout the cultivating season the defendant and the deceased discussed plans for working the crops; that, when it was agreed, for example, that on to-morrow the tobacco should be primed, the defendant would disappear and stay away all day. While not under contract to do so, the deceased told the defendant "he would give him some moat and bread, but after he found out the defendant was not trying to make anything, he refused to furnish him."
It is further in evidence that the deceased was unarmed at the time of the homicide; and that his wife called to the defendant not to shoot, just as he levelled his gun. The defendant immediately fled the vicinity, going first to Roanoke Rapids, then into Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and was finally arrested in Sharon, Pa.
The defendant took the stand in his own behalf and testified that he was to get half the tobacco and half the corn; that Mr. Clayton ; that on the morning of the homicide they were dividing the tobacco, the deceased not wanting the children of the defendant to handle his part:
The defendant further testified that he went into the woods--not intending to seek refuge in flight--but, when he saw in the Hendersonpaper that a mob was after him with guns and dogs, bloodhounds, he went away, intending to come home soon.
Verdict: Guilty of murder in the first degree.
Judgment: Death by electrocution.
The defendant appeals.
Dennis G. Brummitt, Atty. Gen., and a. a. F. Seawell, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
STACY, Chief Justice (after stating the case).
If this were not a capital case, it would be necessary to affirm the judgment, on motion of the Attorney General, for failure properly to present exceptive assignments of error. State v. Freeze, 170 N. C. 710, 86 S. E. 1000; State v. Kelly (N. C.)175 S. E. 294, this day decided. In defense of counsel now appearing for the prisoner, however, it should be said they did not represent him at the trial or in the court below.
No exceptions were taken to the admission or exclusion of evidence and none properly to the charge. There was a formal motion to set aside the verdict and one in arrest of judgment, to which exceptions were entered, but otherwise the assignments of error are without exceptions to support them.
Speaking to a similar situation in Boyer v. Jarrell, 180 N. C. 479, 105 S. E. 9, 11, the court, quoting with approval from Harrison v. Dill, 169 N. C. 542, 86 S. E. 518, said:
Again, in Re Will of Beard, 202 N. C. 661, 163 S. E. 748, it was said:
Likewise, in Rawls v. Lupton, 193 N. C. 428, 137 S. E. 175, and Cecil v. Lumber Co., 197 N. C. 81, 147 S. E. 735, attention was called to the fact that these requirements are statutory, C. S. § 643, as well as mandatory, under numerous decisions of the court. The Supreme Court on appeal exercises only appellate jurisdiction, and it is necessary that the errors alleged should be presented as the law directs. State v. Webster, 121 N. C. 586, 28 S. E. 254.
Objections to the admission of incompetent evidence, or the exclusion of competent testimony, may be waived by failure to object in apt time. State v. Steen, 185 N. C. 768, 117 S. E. 793. Similarly, other errors, not appearing on the face of the record proper, may be waived by failure to note objections or properly to assign errors and discuss them on brief. Merritt v. Dick, 169 N. C. 244, 85 S. E. 2.
In the present case, for instance, if the defendant wished to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to show...
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