State v. McCoy, 577

Citation236 N.C. 121,71 S.E.2d 921
Decision Date22 August 1952
Docket NumberNo. 577,577
PartiesSTATE, v. McCOY.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

Gilbert Medlin, Laurinburg, for defendant-appellant.

Atty. Gen., Harry McMullan, Asst. Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton, and Robert B. Broughton, Member of Staff, Raleigh, for the State.

VALENTINE, Justice.

In this enlightened age the humanity of the law is such that no man shall suffer death as a penalty for crime, except upon conviction in a trial free from substantial error and in which the constitutional and statutory safeguards for the protection of his rights have been scrupulously observed. Therefore, in all capital cases reaching this Court, it is the settled policy to examine the record for the ascertainment of reversible error. State v. Watson, 203 N.C. 70, 179 S.E. 455; State v. Stovall, 214 N.C. 695, 200 S.E. 426; State v. Moore, 216 N.C. 543, 5 S.E.2d 719; State v. Williams, 216 N.C. 740, 6 S.E.2d 492; State v. Page, 217 N.C. 288, 7 S.E.2d 559; State v. Morrow, 220 N.C. 441, 17 S.E.2d 507; State v. Brooks, 224 N.C. 627, 31 S.E.2d 754; State v. West, 229 N.C. 416, 50 S.E.2d 3; State v. Garner, 230 N.C. 66, 51 S.E.2d 895. If, upon such an examination, error is found, it then becomes the duty of the Court upon its own motion to recognize and act upon the error so found. State v. Sermons, 212 N.C. 767, 194 S.E. 469. This rule obtains whether the prisoner be prince or pauper.

With this principle as a beacon or polar star, we proceed to a discussion of the inadvertences which appear to have crept into the charge of the court.

After reviewing the testimony relating to the quarrel between the man and his wife into which the prisoner had intruded, his Honor told the jury that the State had offered evidence tending to show 'that during the course of the argument as to whether or not the deceased's wife would leave with the defendant, the defendant made the statement that if the deceased 'messed up with him' that he was going to kill him before he left.' The court further told the jury that the State's evidence tended to show that the defendant 'stabbed him from the rear, whereupon the deceased fell to the ground.' And further that the State offered evidence tending to show 'that while the defendant was stabbing the deceased and while he was striking the deceased with the axe that the deceased's wife was begging the defendant not to kill her husband.'

A careful examination of the record fails to disclose any evidence in support of the above quoted excerpts from the charge. 'The court should never give the jury instructions based upon a state of facts not presented by some reasonable view, of the evidence produced on the trial, nor upon a supposed state of facts.' State v. Wilson, 104 N.C. 868, 10 S.E. 315, 316. Such instructions only tend to mislead and confuse the jury. While an inaccurate statement of facts contained in the evidence should be called to the attention of the court during or at the conclusion of the charge in order that the error might be corrected, a statement of a material fact not shown in the evidence constitutes reversible error. State v. Love, 187 N.C. 32, 121 S.E. 20; Smith v. Stanfield Hosiery Mill, 212 N.C. 661, 194 S.E. 83; State v. Wyont, 218 N.C. 505, 11 S.E.2d 473; Curlee v. Scales, 223 N.C. 788, 28 S.E.2d 576; Steelman v. Benfield, 228 N.C. 651, 46 S.E.2d 829; Piedmont Supply Co. v. Rozzell, 235 N.C. 631, 70 S.E.2d 677.

Hence, instructions to the jury that the State had offered evidence of a threat by the defendant to kill deceased, that the prisoner stabbed deceased from the rear, and that while the defendant and deceased were fighting, the wife of deceased was begging for the life of her husband, were erroneous and highly prejudicial to the defendant. These instructions furnished a strong basis for a finding that a murder was committed in cold blood, after deliberation and over the importunities of deceased's wife and must be held for error.

The court below further instructed the jury in part as follows:

'So I charge you, Gentlemen, that if you find from the evidence and beyond a reasonable doubt, that the prisoner killed the deceased, at the time and place in question, but you also find...

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35 cases
  • State v. Cummings, 65A87
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
    • October 6, 1988
    ...(1971); State v. Atkinson, 275 N.C. 288, 167 S.E.2d 241 (1969); State v. Fowler, 270 N.C. 468, 155 S.E.2d 83 (1967); State v. McCoy, 236 N.C. 121, 71 S.E.2d 921 (1952). FRYE, Justice, dissenting as to For the reasons expressed in the Chief Justice's dissenting opinion in State v. McKoy, 323......
  • State v. McKoy, 585A85
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
    • September 7, 1988
    ...degree murder and sentenced to death. This Court, however, awarded a new trial for errors in the instructions. See State v. McCoy, 236 N.C. 121, 71 S.E.2d 921 (1952). ...
  • State v. Stokes
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
    • February 3, 1987
    ...on appeal. State v. Buchanan, 287 N.C. 408, 215 S.E.2d 80 (1975); State v. Fowler, 270 N.C. 468, 155 S.E.2d 83 (1967); State v. McCoy, 236 N.C. 121, 71 S.E.2d 921 (1952). But the Court has also said in considering questions arising from the admission of evidence: A defendant, however, in a ......
  • State v. Malachi, 142PA17
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
    • December 7, 2018
    ...447, 449 (1970) (First citing State v. Knight , 248 N.C. 384, 389-90, 103 S.E.2d 452, 455-56 (1958) ; then citing State v. McCoy , 236 N.C. 121, 124, 71 S.E.2d 921, 923 (1952) ). Assuming, without in any way deciding, that the State has neither waived the right to assert that actual possess......
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