State v. Lowther, 4
Decision Date | 22 September 1965 |
Docket Number | No. 4,4 |
Citation | 265 N.C. 315,144 S.E.2d 64 |
Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Parties | STATE, v. Clarence Willie LOWTHER. |
Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton, Deputy Atty. Gen. Harry W. McGalliard and Asst. Atty. Gen. James F. Bullock, for the State.
George E. Tillett, Edenton, Samuel S. Mitchell and Romallus O. Murphy, Raleigh, for defendant appellant.
The State's evidence was amply sufficient to carry the case to the jury on both counts in the indictment. Defendant made no motion for judgment of nonsuit, makes no contention in his brief that the State's evidence was insufficient to carry the case to the jury on both counts in the indictment, and his only assignments of error are to the charge.
Defendant assigns as error this part of the charge:
A reading of the entire charge shows that the above quotation is the only instruction in respect to circumstantial evidence given by the court to the jury.
When the State relies upon circumstantial evidence to convict, it seems that not infrequently counsel and at times the trial court have been confused as to 'the rules for testing the quantum of proof necessary (1) to carry a case to the jury, and (2) thereafter to warrant the jury in returning a verdict of guilty.' State v. Moore, 262 N.C. 431, 137 S.E.2d 812.
'In all fairness it may be observed that [in respect to circumstantial evidence] some of the decisions of this Court have not tended to clarify the distinction between the court's and the jury's functions.' State v. Davis, 246 N.C. 73, 97 S.E.2d 444.
The rule in respect to the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence to carry the case to the jury is lucidly stated in an opinion by Higgins, J., in State v. Stephens, 244 N.C. 380, 93 S.E.2d 431, as follows:
This has been quoted with approval in whole or in part in State v. Davis, supra; State v. Horner, 248 N.C. 342, 103 S.E.2d 694; State v. Parrish, 251 N.C. 274, 111 S.E.2d 314; State v. Haddock, 254 N.C. 162, 118 S.E.2d 411; State v. Thompson, 256 N.C. 593, 124 S.E.2d 728. The rule as stated in the Stephens case has been approved as recently as the Fall Term 1964 in State v. Moore, supra.
No set form of words is required which the court must use to convey to the jury the rule relating to the degree of proof required for conviction on circumstantial evidence in a criminal case. State v. Shook, 224 N.C. 728, 32 S.E.2d 329. This Court has consistently held that circumstantial evidence is...
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State v. Beach
...that circumstantial evidence must point unerringly to defendant's guilt and exclude every other reasonable hypothesis. State v. Lowther, 265 N.C. 315, 144 S.E.2d 64; State v. Stephens, 244 N.C. 380, 93 S.E.2d 431; State v. Warren, 228 N.C. 22, 44 S.E.2d In instant case the requested instruc......
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State v. Westbrook
...in conveying to the jury this rule relating to the degree of proof required for conviction upon circumstantial evidence. State v. Lowther, 265 N.C. 315, 144 S.E.2d 64; State v. Shoup, 226 N.C. 69, 36 S.E.2d 697; State v. Shook, 224 N.C. 728, 32 S.E.2d In State v. Lowther, supra, upon which ......
- State v. Bunch, COA08-558.
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State v. Willis
...37, 229 S.E.2d 163 (1976). As noted by our Supreme Court in Sledge, reiterating what it had earlier stressed in State v. Lowther, 265 N.C. 315, 318, 144 S.E.2d 64, 67 (1965), "[n]o set form of words is required which the court must use to convey to the jury the rule relating to the degree o......