State v. Freeman
| Decision Date | 13 April 1938 |
| Docket Number | 361. |
| Citation | 196 S.E. 308,213 N.C. 378 |
| Parties | STATE v. FREEMAN. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Sampson County; E. H. Cranmer, Judge.
J. C Freeman was convicted of forgery of and uttering two separate checks, and he appeals.
New trial.
Criminal action tried on two indictments charging defendant with the forgery of and uttering two separate checks.
Defendant plead not guilty.
Verdict Guilty.
Judgment Eighteen months in state's prison.
Defendant appealed to the Supreme Court, and assigned error.
In prosecution for forging checks, where state sought to prove accused's handwriting by introducing two checks payable to and indorsed by accused, and state's witness denied having seen accused receive or indorse the checks, and denied that he so testified at preliminary hearing before justice of the peace, court erred in thereafter permitting the justice to testify as to what witness had stated at preliminary hearing in conflict to his testimony at trial.
A. A. F. Seawell, Atty. Gen., and Harry McMullan and Emmet C. Willis, Assts. Atty. Gen., for appellant.
E. C. Robinson and Butler & Butler, all of Clinton, for the State.
That a party cannot discredit his own witness is a well-settled rule of evidence in judicial procedure in this state. Strudwick v. Brodnax, 83 N.C. 401; State v. Taylor, 88 N.C. 694; Gadsby v. Dyer, 91 N.C. 311, 312; McDonald v. Carson, 94 N.C. 497; Chester v. Wilhelm, 111 N.C. 314, 16 S.E. 229; State v. Mace, 118 N.C. 1244, 24 S.E. 798; Smith v. Atlantic & C. Air Line R. Co., 147 N.C. 603, 61 S.E. 575; Lynch v. Veneer Co., 169 N.C. 169, 85 S.E. 289; Worth Co. v. International Sugar Feed Co., 172 N.C. 335, 90 S.E. 295; State v. Melvin, 194 N.C. 394, 139 S.E. 762; Clay v. Connor, 198 N.C. 200, 151 S.E. 257; State v. Cohoon, 206 N.C. 388, 174 S.E. 91.
For the state's violation of this rule in the present case, defendant is entitled to a new trial.
The record discloses that the two checks in question were drawn on the First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company, of Roseboro, one, dated January 12, 1937, for $27, purporting to be signed in the name of C. B. Sessoms and payable to the order of and indorsed by W. L. Jackson; and the other dated January 16, 1937, for $21, purporting to be signed in the name of C. B. Sessoms and payable to the order of and indorsed by H. B. Johnson.
State introduced the witness C. B. Sessoms, who testified that he did not sign nor authorize any one to sign either of the two checks. For the apparent purpose of proving the handwriting of the defendant to be used as a proven specimen for comparison with the handwriting on the checks in question, the witness identified two checks, one dated January 6, 1937, for $3, and the other dated January 19, 1937, for $4, each signed by him and payable to the order of and indorsed by defendant, J. C. Freeman. The witness testified that he hired the defendant to carry him to Fayetteville on two occasions, that he paid him with these last two checks, that the defendant filled out the body of each check, and that he, the witness, signed each. He further testified that when he gave defendant the $4 check Walter Faircloth was with him. The state then introduced as witness Walter Faircloth who testified that he had been on a trip with Sessoms and J. C. Freeman; that he did not know Sessoms gave Freeman anything for carrying them; that he did not see him give him anything; that he did not hear anything said about any money; that he did not see a check given by Sessoms to Freeman; and that "I was in the car but I did not see him give that check."
After offering the testimony of several witnesses with...
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