State v. Lucas
Decision Date | 02 May 1956 |
Docket Number | No. 505,505 |
Citation | 244 N.C. 53,92 S.E.2d 401 |
Parties | STATE, v. Preston LUCAS. |
Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
W. H. Yarborough, Raleigh, for defendant appellant.
William B. Rodman, Jr., Atty. Gen., Robert E. Giles, Asst. Atty. Gen., and F. Kent Burns, Staff Atty., Raleigh, for the State.
Defendant, appellant, files in this Court 'motion and brief' in which he moves the Court to arrest judgment in this cause for that the bill of indictment is fatally defective, and the argument submitted is in support of the motion. Thus the question: Is the bill of indictment fatally defective? Yes, it is!
In this connection subornation of perjury, the crime of which defendant stands convicted, consists in procuring another to commit the crime of perjury. G.S. § 14-210. State v. Chambers, 180 N.C. 705, 104 S.E. 670; State v. Cannon, 227 N.C. 336, 42 S.E.2d 343; Bell v. State, 5 Ga.App. 701, 63 S.E. 860; State v. Sailor, 240 N.C. 113, 81 S.E.2d 191.
The principle is aptly stated by Hill, C. J., in the Bell case, supra, in this manner: See State v. Sailor, supra.
Perjury, as defined at common law and enlarged by statute in this State, G.S. § 14-209, is 'a false statement under oath, knowingly, wilfully and designedly made, in a proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction, or concerning a matter wherein the affiant is required by law to be sworn, as to some matter material to the issue or point in question.' State v. Smith, 230 N.C. 198, 52 S.E.2d 348, 349, and cases cited; also State v. Sailor, supra.
Indeed this statute, G.S. § 14-209, declares in pertinent part that 'if any person shall willfully and corruptly commit perjury, on his oath or affirmation, in any suit, controversy, matter or cause, depending in any of the courts of the State, * * * every person so offending shall be guilty of a felony', and fined and imprisoned as there indicated.
And the statute G.S. § 14-210, pertaining to subornation of perjury, declares that 'if any person shall, by any means, procure another person to commit such willful and corrupt perjury as is mentioned in § 14-209 the person so offending shall be punished in like manner as the person committing the perjury.'
And the General Assembly of 1889 passed an act, Chapter 83, to simplify indictments for perjury. This act has been brought forward in the various subsequent codifications, and is now a part of G.S. § 15-145. This section provides that 'in every indictment for willful and corrupt perjury it is sufficient to set forth the substance of the offense charged upon the defendant, and by what court, or before whom, the oath was taken (averring such court or person to have competent authority to administer the same), together with the proper averments to falsify the matter wherein the perjury is assigned,' without setting forth several enumerated items constituting the judgment roll, so to speak, of the case. And then it is declared that 'In indictments for perjury the following form shall be sufficient, to wit:
'The jurors for the State, on their oath, present, that A. B., of ...... County, did unlawfully commit perjury upon the trial of an action in ...... court, in ...... County, wherein ...... was plaintiff and ...... was defendant, by falsely asserting, on oath (or solemn affirmation) (here set out the statement or statements alleged to be false), knowing the said statement, or statements, to be false, or being ignorant whether or not said statement was true.'
And this Court, speaking of the Chapter 83, Laws of 1889, in the case of State v. Flowers, 109 N.C. 841, 13 S.E. 718, 719, had this to say: (Italics ours.)
And the General Assembly has provided by statute, ...
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