State v. Robinson, 169
| Decision Date | 27 September 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 169,169 |
| Citation | 271 N.C. 448,156 S.E.2d 854 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. James ROBINSON. |
Williams & Williams, by John B. Williams, Jr., Clinton, for defendant appellant.
T. W. Bruton, Atty. Gen., and Harry W. McGalliard, Deputy Atty. Gen., for the State.
G.S. § 14--54 provides that the penalty for breaking and entering shall be imprisonment for not more than ten (10) years. Under G.S. § 14--72, the larceny of property taken by breaking and entering a storehouse shall be a felony, and the punishment therefor could be as much as ten (10) years' imprisonment; thus, the Court could have pronounced sentences totaling twenty (20) years. The sole exception presented by the defendant is that the prison sentence of not less than seven (7) nor more than nine (9) years constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
In State v. Bruce, 268 N.C. 174, 150 S.E.2d 216, Chief Justice Parker, with his usual thoroughness, discussed this question. He said: 'We have held in case after case that when the punishment does not exceed the limits fixed by the statute, it cannot be considered cruel and unusual punishment in a constitutional sense.' He then quoted from State v. McNally, 152 Conn. 598, 211 A.2d 162, cert. den., 382 U.S. 948, 86 S.Ct. 410, 15 L.Ed.2d 356:
The defendant told the Court that he had been in prison almost constantly for the past ten years, that he had 'pulled time' for about twenty cases of breaking and entering, for two cases of larceny, for receiving stolen property one time, for forgery, and for escape. With this kind of record, the Court was entirely justified in feeling that society should be protected from the defendant for a substantial period of time. The sentence imposed was entirely reasonable, and could not be construed as cruel and unusual in a...
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State v. Rogers, 20
...153 S.E.2d 849), unless the punishment provisions of the statute itself are unconstitutional. State v. Bruce, supra; State v. Robinson, 271 N.C. 448, 156 S.E.2d 854. G.S. § 14--21 in pertinent part provides that '(e)very person who is convicted of ravishing and carnally knowing any female o......
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State v. Atkinson, No. 2
...570 (1966); State v. Bruce, 268 N.C. 174, 150 S.E.2d 216 (1966); State v. Greer, 270 N.C. 143, 153 S.E.2d 849 (1967); State v. Robinson, 271 N.C. 448, 156 S.E.2d 854 (1967). G.S. § 14--21 provides that the punishment for rape is death unless the jury at the time of rendering its verdict rec......
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State v. Benton
...sentence. In this case--as is often true, no doubt--the culpability of the accessory exceeds that of the principal. See State v. Robinson, 271 N.C. 448, 156 S.E.2d 854; State v. Greer, 270 N.C. 143, 153 S.E.2d 849; State v. Elliott, 269 N.C. 683, 153 S.E.2d 330; 24 B C.J.S. Criminal Law 197......
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State v. Legette
...State v. Cradle, 281 N.C. 198, 188 S.E.2d 296 (1972); State v. Rogers, 275 N.C. 411, 168 S.E.2d 345 (1969); State v. Robinson, 271 N.C. 448, 156 S.E.2d 854 (1967); State v. Greer, 270 N.C. 143, 153 S.E.2d 849 (1967); State v. Bruce, 268 N.C. 174, 150 S.E.2d 216 (1966). So long as a sentence......