State v. Ferrell
| Decision Date | 10 January 1934 |
| Docket Number | 544. |
| Citation | 172 S.E. 186,205 N.C. 640 |
| Parties | STATE v. FERRELL. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Durham County; Barnhill, Judge.
Clyde Ferrell was convicted of first degree murder, and he appeals.
Affirmed.
At March term, 1933, of the superior court of Durham county, an indictment was returned by the grand jury as follows "The jurors for the State upon their oath present that Clyde Ferrell, A. G. Ferguson and Bill Sawyer, late of Durham County, on the 2nd day of March, 1933, each, with force and arms, at and in said county, feloniously, wilfully and of his malice aforethought, did kill and murder one Thaddeus Tilley contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State."
Upon their arraignment on said indictment, the defendants named therein each entered a plea of not guilty. Thereafter pending the trial, and before the introduction of evidence A. G. Ferguson and Bill Sawyer, with the consent of the court, withdrew their pleas of not guilty, and entered, each, a plea of guilty of being an accessory before the fact to the murder charged in the indictment, as defined by C. S. § 4175.
The trial proceeded thereafter as to the defendant Clyde Ferrell. There was a verdict that said defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree.
From judgment that the defendant Clyde Ferrell suffer death as prescribed by statute (C. S. § 4657 et seq.), the said defendant appealed to the Supreme Court.
A. A. McDonald, M. M. Leggett, H. E. Murphy, McLendon & Hedrick, and W. S. Lockhart, all of Durham, for appellant.
Dennis G. Brummitt, Atty. Gen., and A. A. F. Seawell and T. W. Bruton, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.
When the defendants named in the indictment on which this action was prosecuted were called to the bar of the court for their arraignment, the solicitor for the state, in behalf and with the approval of the judge, propounded to the defendants questions as to their pleas in accordance with the forms and procedure which have been from time immemorial and are now in general use in this state. On his appeal to this court, the defendant Clyde Ferrell contends that his arraignment was void because the questions were propounded to him by the solicitor and not by the judge or by the clerk of the court. This contention cannot be sustained. "An arraignment," says Lord Hale, "is nothing but the calling of the offender to the bar of the Court to answer the matter charged against him by indictment or by appeal." It is immaterial that the defendant was arraigned by the solicitor. The records shows that the arraignment was in open court, under the immediate supervision of the judge, and that the defendant entered his plea of not guilty under the advice of counsel. This was sufficient.
The evidence introduced by the state at the trial tended to show that on the night of March 2, 1933, at about 9:15 o'clock, a Ford sedan in which three men were riding stopped in front of a filling station located on a state highway in the northern section of Durham county, about 12 miles from the city of Durham. The three men riding in the automobile were Clyde Ferrell, A. G. Ferguson, and Bill Sawyer. Ferguson and Sawyer got out of the automobile and went into the filling station. Clyde Ferrell, who was the driver of the automobile, remained in his seat. Both Ferguson and Sawyer went into the filling station, and, after making some purchases from the proprietor, Isaac Terry, drew their pistols, and, pointing them at Terry, ordered him to "stick 'em up." At this time Thaddeus Tilley the deceased, and James Terry, the ten year old son of Isaac Terry, were in the filling station. When Ferguson and Sawyer pointed their pistols at him, Isaac Terry ran behind a counter, to a door opening into a small room adjoining the filling station, and got his pistol and a gun. He pointed his pistol, through a crack in the door, at the two men in the filling station. They darted to the door at the entrance to the filling station. A shot was then fired from outside the filling station, and thereupon Isaac Terry went to a window in the filling station, and fired at the fleeing automobile with his gun. Ferguson and Sawyer, after they ran from the filling station, got into the automobile, and were driven away rapidly by the defendant Clyde Ferrell. The next day Clyde Ferrell, A. G. Ferguson, and Bill Sawyer were arrested in the city of Durham. There was evidence tending to show that the defendant Clyde Ferrell, A. G. Ferguson, and Bill Sawyer were well acquainted with each...
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