State v. Grice, 174
| Decision Date | 10 November 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 174,174 |
| Citation | 144 S.E.2d 659,265 N.C. 587 |
| Parties | STATE, v. Spicer Herbert GRICE. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton and Staff Attorney Philip O. Redwine, Raleigh, for the State.
Spicer H. Grice, in pro. per.
On 28 September 1965 defendant in propria persona filed in this Court a petition for a writ of certiorari to review and vacate a judgment of imprisonment for thirty years entered against him at the January 1965 Criminal Session of New Hanover County by Peel, J., and to have the case remanded to the superior court of New Hanover County for a proper judgment.
The petition and the Attorney General's answer thereto show the following facts: At the January 1965 Criminal Session of New Hanover County superior court, defendant, who was represented by his attorney Wallace C. Murchison, a member of the New Hanover County Bar, entered a plea of guilty to an indictment that charged him, a male person over eighteen years of age, with feloniously carnally knowing and abusing a female child, over twelve and under sixteen years of age, who had never before had sexual intercourse with any person, a felony and a violation of G.S. § 14-26. The trial judge sentenced him to serve a sentence in the State's Prison for a term of thirty years.
G.S. § 14-26 provides that the penalty for the offense of which defendant pleaded guilty shall be a fine or imprisonment in the discretion of the court, which is not a specific punishment, and consequently the punishment for the offense of which defendant pleaded guilty is limited by the provisions of G.S. § 14-2, which reads:
'Every person who shall be convicted of any felony for which no specific punishment is prescribed by statute shall be imprisoned in the county jail or State prison not exceeding two years, or be fined, in the discretion of the court, or if the offense be infamous, the person offending shall be imprisoned in the county jail or State prison not less than four months nor more than ten years, or be fined.'
State v. Blackmon, 260 N.C. 352, 132 S.E.2d 880; State v. Canup, 262 N.C. 606, 138 S.E.2d 247. State v. Blackmon overruled State v. Swindell, 189 N.C. 151, 126 S.E. 417, and State v. Cain, 209 N.C. 275, 183 S.E. 300, and 'so much of the opinion in State v. Richardson, 221 N.C. 209, 19 S.E.2d 863, as holds where there is a provision in a statute to the effect that punishment shall be in the discretion of the court and the defendant may be fined or...
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State v. Swinney
...the court. G.S. § 14--18; State v. Adams, 266 N.C. 406, 146 S.E.2d 505; State v. Blackmon, 260 N.C. 352, 132 S.E.2d 880; State v. Grice, 265 N.C. 587, 144 S.E.2d 659; State v. Dunn, 208 N.C. 333, 180 S.E. 708. The imprisonment, however, may not exceed ten years. The defendant's contention t......
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McClure v. State, 5
...of G.S. § 14--26 shall be a fine or imprisonment in the discretion of the court, and imprisonment cannot exceed ten years. State v. Grice, 265 N.C. 587, 144 S.E.2d 659; State v. Blackmon, 260 N.C. 352, 132 S.E.2d 880 (1963). The Blackmon case overruled State v. Swindell, 189 N.C. 151, 126 S......
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Jones v. Ross
...which read "* * * for life, or for a term of years, in the discretion of the court." (Emphasis added) See also State v. Grice, 265 N.C. 587, 144 S.E.2d 659 (1965) and State v. Alston, 264 N.C. 398, 141 S.E.2d 793 (1965) which both held that the "discretionary" terms of imprisonment were lim......
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