State v. Groves

• Decision Date: 23 November 1897
• Citation: 121 N.C. 563,28 S.E. 262
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. GROVES.

28 S.E. 262

121 N.C. 563

STATE

v.GROVES.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 23, 1897.

Criminal Law—Trial—Instructions—Array of Facts—Waiver.

1. A charge only defining the different degrees of murder in general terms is insufficient where the evidence of guilt is conflicting, as the contentions of the parties should be stated, and there should be an array of facts, and an instruction as to what law is applicable, if the jury find according to either of the contentions, in view of Code, § 413, providing that the judge "shall state in plain and correct manner the evidence given in the case, and declare and explain the law arising thereon."

2. Where a defendant charged with a capital offense has pleaded "Not guilty, " his consent that the judge need not read over his notes is not a waiver of his right to have the judge set forth such evidence as is required to give proper instructions.

3. When a prisoner, who is tried on an indictment for murder in the first degree, is convicted of murder in the second degree, or manslaughter, and on appeal a new trial is ordered, the case goes back for trial for the full offense charged in the indictment.

Appeal from superior court, Wake county; Adams, Judge.

John Groves appeals from a conviction of murder in the second degree. Reversed.

The following is the charge of the judge: "The state is required to satisfy you beyond a reasonable doubt of the guilt of the prisoner. The prisoner is not required to show his innocence. The law presumes every person charged with crime to be innocent; and, if the state has so satisfied you, then your next inquiry is as to what degree of crime has been committed, whether murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or manslaughter. You are instructed that, under our statute, the prisoner cannot be found guilty of murder in the first degree unless you are satisfied from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, not only that he is guilty of feloniously killing the deceased, but it must further appear from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that such killing was done willfully, deliberately, and with premeditation—that is, that it was done intentionally and with prior deliberation; and unless all these appear from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury cannot find murder in the first degree. While the law requires, in order to constitute murder in the first degree, that the killing shall be willful and premeditated, still it does not require that the willful intent premeditated or deliberated shall exist for any length of time before the crime is committed. It is sufficient if there was a design and determination to.kill, distinctly formed in the mind at any moment before or at the time the pistol shot was fired. And inthis case, if you believe from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the prisoner feloniously shot and killed deceased as charged in the indictment, and that, before or at the time the pistol was fired, the prisoner had formed in his mind the willful, deliberate and premeditated purpose and design to take the life of the deceased, and that the pistol was shot in furtherance of that design and purpose, and death ensued from the effect of said shot, that he would be guilty of murder in the first degree. To constitute murder in the first degree, there must have been an unlawful killing, done purposely and with premeditation and malice. If a person has actually formed the purpose maliciously to kill, and has deliberated and premeditated upon it before he performed the act, and then performs it, he is guilty of murder in the first degree, however short the time may have been between the purpose and its execution. It is not time which constitutes the distinction between murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree. Deliberation and premeditation are essential in order to constitute murder in the first degree, it matters not how short the time, if the party has turned it over in his mind, and weighed and deliberated upon it. Murder in the second degree is the felonious killing of a person with malice aforethought, but without deliberation and...