State v. Ellis
| Decision Date | 23 November 1955 |
| Docket Number | No. 293,293 |
| Citation | 243 N.C. 142,90 S.E.2d 225 |
| Parties | STATE, v. J. Wall ELLIS. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Atty. Gen. Wm. Rodman, Jr., and Asst. Atty. Gen. Claude L. Love for the State.
Charles Hughes, Robert Lacey, Newland, Nance & Barrington, Fayetteville, G. D. Bailey, W. E. Anglin, Burnsville, for defendant.
The evidence tends to show that for several years there had been considerable ill feeling between the deceased and the defendant. Therefore, the State vigorously contended in the trial below that the defendant shot and killed the deceased, not while acting in his official capacity as Wildlife Protector but because of his malice and ill will toward him, and was, therefore, not acting in good faith as a peace officer. Notwithstanding this contention on the part of the State, when the defendant undertook to explain why he was going to where his deputy had gone to check the license of the man they had been following, the court sustained the State's objection thereto and would not permit the jury to consider his explanation, which was as follows: 'The reason I went was because it is customary for the game warden, the game protector of the county to take charge of the citations, if any are to be written, and take care of proceedings in law, and that is why I went down there to the fishermen.'
We think this was prejudicial error. Particularly in view of the fact that the court submitted this phase of the case to the jury strictly in accord with the State's contention. His right of self-defense in every portion of the charge was conditioned upon whether he was a trespasser upon the property of Ralph Young, or whether he was there in the discharge of his duties as a Wildlife Protector The express language of the charge, to which Exception No. 62 is directed, is as follows:
Furthermore, the defendant having testified in his own behalf, and having offered numerous witnesses who testified they knew his general character and reputation in the community in which he lived, and that it is good, the State offered testimony tending to show that the character of the defendant is bad. One of these witnesses, the Reverend Bruce Buchanan, testified that he was the pastor of Roan Mountain Church; that he knew the general character and reputation of Ralph Young and Dewey Young, brothers of the deceased, and of Mrs. Charlie Young, wife of the deceased, and that the character of each is good. He was then asked if he knew the defendant, and he stated that he knew him only when he saw him. He said: 'Personally, I do not know his general character.' He was then asked this question: 'Do you know it from the esteem in which he is held in the community in which he lives, what the people generally say about him? ' Answer: Exceptions were interposed to the question and answer and were overruled. However, on cross-examination, this witness said: Thus, this witness was permitted to testify that the defendant's character is bad, based not on his general...
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