State v. Mason
| Decision Date | 02 November 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. 258,258 |
| Citation | 150 S.E.2d 753,268 N.C. 423 |
| Parties | STATE v. Grelia Arthur MASON. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton and Asst. Atty. Gen. Millard R. Rich, Jr., for the State.
Elreta Melton Alexander and E. L. Alston, Jr., Greensboro, for defendant, appellant.
The defendant's principal assignments of error relate to the charge to the jury and present the question: Did the court below err in failing to charge the jury that in order to find defendant guilty, it must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant wilfully failed, after demand made of him, to support his illegitimate child?
Pertinent excerpts from the trial judge's charge necessary for our consideration are:
Counsel for the defendant answered, 'Yes, sir, your Honor.'
'That simplifies the matter, gentlemen, down into one question and one question alone for you to determine, and that is, is the defendant, Albert Mason, called in the warrant Grelia Mason, the father of the illegitimate child of the prosecuting witness?'
'(I)f you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt or to a moral certainty from the testimony in the case that he is the father of this child, it will become your duty to find him guilty.'
'If you are satisfied from this testimony and beyond a reasonable doubt, as that has been explained to you to mean, that this young man, the defendant in this case here, is in fact the father of the little child, the daughter of Winnie Johnson, it would be your duty to find him guilty.'
It is elementary that 'a defendants' pleas of not guilty put in issue each essential element of the crimes charged.' State v. Swaringen, 249 N.C. 38, 105 S.E.2d 99. This Court in considering an appeal from a conviction under G.S. § 49--2 in the case of State v. Hayden, 224 N.C. 779, 32 S.E.2d 333, speaking through Devin, J. (later C.J.), said: 'In order to convict the defendant under the statute the burden was on the State to show not only that he was the father of the child, and that he had refused or neglected to support and maintain it, but further that his refusal or neglect was wilful, that is, intentionally done, 'without just cause, excuse or justification,' after notice and request for support.'
Again considering the charge in a prosecution under this statute, the Court held in the case of State v. Robinson, 245 N.C. 10, 95 S.E.2d 126:
Nowhere in the charge in the instant case was there...
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State v. Green, 22
...intentionally and without justification, failed to support and maintain the child after notice and request for support. State v. Mason, 268 N.C. 423, 150 S.E.2d 753; State v. Ellison, 230 N.C. 59, 52 S.E.2d 9; State v. Stiles, 228 N.C. 137, 44 S.E.2d In such a prosecution, the issue which m......
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State v. Bunch, COA08-558.
...of express authority, to waive or surrender by agreement or otherwise the substantial rights of his client." State v. Mason, 268 N.C. 423, 426, 150 S.E.2d 753, 755 (1966) (citation omitted). Certainly, the right to a jury trial is a substantial one. The State concedes that the right to a ju......
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State v. Edgerton
...the absence of express authority, to waive or surrender by agreement or otherwise the substantial rights of his client." 268 N.C. 423, 426, 150 S.E.2d 753, 755 (1966) (citation omitted). However, that same decision makes clear that its holding is based on the fact that the waiver made by de......
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State v. Snipes
...judicial opinion, the erroneous expression occurred during the jury charge, not during jury selection. See, e .g., State v. Mason,268 N.C. 423, 425, 150 S.E.2d 753, 755 (1966) ; State v. Mitchell,260 N.C. 235, 238–39, 132 S.E.2d 481, 483 (1963) ; State v. Covington,48 N.C.App. 209, 211–12, ......