State v. Green

• Decision Date: 18 September 1968
• Docket Number: No. 6817SC311,6817SC311
• Citation: State v. Green, 2 N.C.App. 391, 163 S.E.2d 14 (N.C. App. 1968)
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Arthur Lee GREEN.
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals

Page 14

163 S.E.2d 14

2 N.C.App. 391

STATE of North Carolina v. Arthur Lee GREEN.

No. 6817SC311.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

Sept. 18, 1968.

T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen., by Harry W. McGalliard, Deputy Atty. Gen., for the State.

Charles L. Folger, Dobson, for defendant appellant.

MALLARD, Chief Judge.

In August 1967 in the Superior Court of Surry County the defendant, represented by counsel, pleaded guilty in case number 67--263 to the felony of attempted armed robbery in violation of G.S. § 14--87 and was sentenced to imprisonment in the State Prison for a term of not less than nine years nor more than twelve years. At the same session of court the defendant entered a plea of guilty in case number 67--264 to felonious assault and was sentenced to imprisonment in the State Prison for a term of not less than eight years nor more than ten years to run concurrently with the sentence in case number 67-- 263.

Defendant filed a petition which he called 'A Petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus In Forma Pauperis Under G.S. 15--217, 15--222.' The allegations in the petition are that defendant is illegally detained in the North Carolina State Prison, that his civil rights were violated, and that he was denied due process and equal protection of the law. He also asserts in his petition that he is entitled to have the charges against him vacated and to be released from prison. He was given a hearing on the petition after an attorney was appointed to represent him. At the hearing the defendant testified that with his consent, his attorney entered a plea of guilty at his original trial. After hearing the evidence offered at the hearing on the petition, the presiding judge, upon competent evidence, found as a fact that the defendant voluntarily entered a plea of guilty and that this only complaint then was that he was improperly brought from the State of Virginia to the State of North Carolina.

In 21 Am.Jur.2d, Criminal Law, § 381, we find the following:

'Where a person accused of a crime is found within the territorial jurisdiction wherein he is charged, and is held under process legally issued from a court of that jurisdiction, neither the jurisdiction of the court nor the right to put him on trial for the offense charged is impaired by the manner in which he was brought from another jurisdiction, whether by kidnapping, illegal arrest, abduction, or irregular extradition proceedings. The basic principle supporting this general rule is that when a person accused of crime is held under valid process in the proper forum, such detention is not rendered invalid by the illegality of the events which preceded, or which made the detention physically possible. His wrong against the state holding him is not excused by the illegality of the means employed in obtaining custody, and the means used to bring him there will not be a subject of inquiry.

The general rule is frequently applied where the accused has been arrested by officers in another state and brought into the state where he is charged with crime without the formality of extradition proceedings. * * *'

Even if the defendant was improperly or illegally brought to North Carolina after being apprehended in Virginia, this would not affect the right of the State of North Carolina to try him and imprison him on the felony charges to which he voluntarily pleaded guilty.

The petition contains some but not all of the necessary allegations of an application for a writ of habeas corpus under G.S. § 17--7. This statute requires that a petition for a writ of habeas corpus must state in substance that the legality of the imprisonment or restraint has not been already adjudged, upon a prior writ of habeas corpus, to the knowledge or belief of the applicant. This petition does not contain such an allegation.

In the case...