State v. Monroe
Decision Date | 16 April 1991 |
Docket Number | No. 9016SC784,9016SC784 |
Citation | 102 N.C.App. 567,402 S.E.2d 850 |
Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Bobby Jeffrey MONROE. |
Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Doris J. Holton, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.
Murray, Regan and Regan by Cabell J. Regan, Lumberton, for defendant-appellee.
The State appeals the trial court's order entered 21 March 1990 granting the defendant's motion for appropriate relief.
The defendant was tried and convicted by a jury of robbery with a firearm at the 21 June 1989 Criminal Session of Robeson County Superior Court. The defendant gave notice of appeal on 26 June 1989. On 12 December 1989, the State filed a motion to dismiss the defendant's appeal. On 19 December 1989, the defendant filed a motion for appropriate relief pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 15A-1415 (1988) on the ground of newly discovered evidence. On 21 March 1990, the trial court granted the defendant's motion and ordered a new trial.
The dispositive issue is whether the State may appeal this new trial order.
"As a general rule the state cannot appeal from a judgment in favor of a defendant in a criminal case, in the absence of a statute clearly conferring that right." State v. Ward, 46 N.C.App. 200, 202, 264 S.E.2d 737, 738-39 (1980); cf. State v. Joseph, 92 N.C.App. 203, 204, 374 S.E.2d 132, 133 (1988), cert. denied, 324 N.C. 115, 377 S.E.2d 241 (1989) ( ). The statute which authorizes the State's appeal in this case is N.C.G.S. § 15A-1445(a)(2) (1988). It reads in pertinent part:
(a) Unless the rule against double jeopardy prohibits further prosecution, the State may appeal from the superior court to the appellate division:
(1) When there has been a decision or judgment dismissing criminal charges as to one or more counts.
(2) Upon the granting of a motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered or newly available evidence but only on questions of law.
....
Our courts must strictly construe statutes which allow the State to appeal in criminal cases. Ward, 46 N.C.App. at 203, 264 S.E.2d at 739.
"Ordinarily in North Carolina an appeal will only lie from a final judgment." Id.; Joseph, 92 N.C.App. at 204-05, 374 S.E.2d at 133-34; N.C.G.S. § 7A-27(b) (1989) ( ). A final judgment is a judgment which disposes of the case "as to the State and the defendant, leaving nothing to be judicially determined between them in the trial court." State v. Childs, 265 N.C. 575, 578, 144 S.E.2d 653, 655 (1965).
I read N.C.Gen.Stat. § 15A-1445(a)(2) (1988) to provide for an immediate right of appeal by the State if the trial court grants defendant's motion for a new trial on the ground of newly...
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State v. Monroe, No. 192A91
...192A91. Supreme Court of North Carolina. Dec. 6, 1991. On writ of certiorari to review the decision of the Court of Appeals, 102 N.C.App. 567, 402 S.E.2d 850 (1991), dismissing as interlocutory the State's appeal from an order entered in Superior Court, Robeson County, on 21 March 1990, by ......