State v. Buchanan
Decision Date | 03 January 1940 |
Docket Number | 723. |
Citation | 6 S.E.2d 521,216 N.C. 709 |
Parties | STATE v. BUCHANAN. |
Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Charge Murder.
Verdict Guilty of murder in the first degree.
Sentence Death by asphyxiation.
John D. Slawter and Richmond Rucker, both of Winston-Salem, for defendant, appellant.
Harry McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State, appellee.
The defendant was charged with the murder of his wife. The evidence was ample to sustain a verdict of murder in the first degree. Included in that evidence was a purported confession of the defendant, to the introduction of which objection was made. The exception cannot be sustained, since the evidence of the voluntariness of the confession is well within the standards heretofore approved by the court.
One objection by the defendant, however, raises a question of such a serious nature as to merit further consideration.
The defendant was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for this offense before, appealed, and a new trial was granted. The case is reported in 216 N.C. at page 34, 3 S.E.2d 273.
Upon the second trial, now under review, the judge, over objection of the defendant, permitted the solicitor to read the following excerpts from the opinion in that case, with comment thereupon, as follows:
Reference to the opinion from which this quotation is made will show that the part read by the solicitor was immediately preceded by the following: ' We think the full effect of the objection applied in the present case can be better understood by taking these two excerpts together.
While the case before was sent back for retrial principally upon the ground that the remark of the judge at the time,-- "He swore both ways",--was calculated to discredit the defendant's testimony in the eyes of the jury, it has another significance at this time, since the defendant did not go upon the stand at his more recent trial. The jury might...
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