State v. Smith, 147.

Citation195 S.E. 819,213 N.C. 299
Decision Date23 March 1938
Docket NumberNo. 147.,147.
PartiesSTATE. v. SMITH.
CourtNorth Carolina Supreme Court

195 S.E. 819
213 N.C. 299

STATE.
v.
SMITH.

No. 147.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

March 23, 1938.


[195 S.E. 819]

Appeal from Superior Court, McDowell County; Felix E. Alley, Judge.

Mann Smith, alias Hiawatha Smith, was convicted of rape, and he appeals.

Affirmed.

This is a criminal prosecution under a bill of indictment charging the defendant with the commission of the capital felony of rape. The prosecutrix, a girl 13 years of age, was on her way home from school on March 31, 1937. When she walked she took a short cut by way of a path leading through woods. This path turned off at Black Bottom and led over the ridge. After she had gone some distance into the woods she saw the defendant standing by the path. There was evidence that he had seen her coming and had gone to this point to wait for her. When she got within a few steps of him the defendant told her to stop, and asked her if she wanted him to shoot her. He had his hands in his pocket; he then took her off the path in the woods and assaulted her and later took her further in the woods and again assaulted her, detaining the prosecutrix altogether about 2½ hours. There was a verdict of "guilty of rape as charged in the bill of indictment." From judgment of death by asphyxiation pronounced thereon, the defendant appealed.

[195 S.E. 820]

W. R. Chambers, Wm. C. Chambers, and Edward H. McMahan, all of Marion, for appellant.

A. A. F. Seawell, Atty. Gen, and Harry McMullan and Willis, Asst. Attys. Gen, for the State.

BARNHILL, Justice.

The defendant offered no evidence, but rested his defense upon the contentions that: (1) He did not commit the crime; (2) the alleged confessions made by him were incompetent; and (3) that his age precluded his being sentenced to death.

To detail the evidence herein to any considerable extent would serve no good purpose. It is sufficient to say that there was ample evidence offered tending to show that the crime of rape was committed upon the person of the prosecutrix and to identify the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime. The prosecutrix testified to facts sufficient to constitute the offense and she was corroborated by the doctor who examined her, and others. The testimony was sufficient to be submitted to the jury for it to determine whether the threats made by the defendant and the circumstances surrounding the assault were sufficient to, and did, put the prosecutrix in fear and overcome her power of resistance. The prosecutrix likewise identified the defendant on the...

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