State v. Massey
| Decision Date | 07 January 1949 |
| Docket Number | 722 |
| Citation | 51 S.E.2d 179,229 N.C. 734 |
| Parties | STATE v. MASSEY et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Criminal prosecutions on separate warrants charging each of the defendants, in identical language and differing only as to date, with endangering the public health, safety and welfare by handling poisonous reptiles in such manner as to constitute a public nuisance in violation of an ordinance of the City of Durham forbidding such conduct or practice.
Both defendants were convicted in the Recorder's Court of Durham Township, and from the judgments pronounced, appealed to the Superior Court of Durham County, where by consent the cases were consolidated for trial.
The facts are not in dispute. On the evenings of November 1 and 8, 1947, several policemen of the City of Durham visited the Zion Tabernacle Church, situate within the corporate limits of the City of Durham, and on each occasion found there a large gathering of men, women and children, engaged in religious services. During the services they saw the defendant, C. H. Bunn, on November 1 and the defendant Benjamin R. Massey, on November 8, while standing in the pulpit, take into his bare hands a poisonous snake of the copperhead or highland moccasin variety and hold it within view of the congregation. No one was harmed by the snake on either occasion. The snakes were later tested by placing healthy rats with them which they immediately struck with their fangs, and the rats died within a few minutes.
The defendants concede that their conduct falls within the condemnation of the ordinance, but they plead not guilty on the ground that the ordinance impinges on their freedom of religious worship and is therefore void.
Verdict Guilty as charged in each warrant.
Judgments Fine of $50 and costs in each case.
The defendants appeal, assigning errors.
Harry M. McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton, Hughes J. Rhodes and Ralph M. Moody, Asst. Attys. Gen., for the State.
C H. Bunn and Benjamin R. Massey, in pro. per., defendants-appellants.
The ordinance inveighs against the handling of venomous and poisonous reptiles in such manner as to endanger the public health, safety and welfare, and none other.
The police are required to seize reptiles handled in an exposed way and have them examined by the health department. If found to be venomous they are to be destroyed; otherwise they are to be returned to the one...
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