State v. Staten, 259

• Citation: 271 N.C. 600,157 S.E.2d 225
• Decision Date: 18 October 1967
• Docket Number: No. 259,259
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Parties: STATE, v. Willie Edward STATEN.

Page 225

157 S.E.2d 225

271 N.C. 600

STATE, v. Willie Edward STATEN.

No. 259.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Oct. 18, 1967.

Atty. Gen. T. W. Bruton, Deputy Atty. Gen. Harry W. McGalliard, and Asst. Atty. Gen. Millard R. Rich. Jr., for the State.

Grier, Parker, Poe & Thompson, by A. Marshall Basinger, Charlotte, for defendant appellant.

PARKER, Chief Justice.

On 24 April 1967 defendant instituted a proceeding in the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County to review the constitutionality of his trial, pursuant to G.S. § 15--217. This petition came on to be heard before Bailey, J., presiding at the 12 June 1967 Regular Schedule 'C' Criminal Session of the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County. Defendant was represented by A. Marshall Basinger, a member of the Mecklenburg County Bar, who was appointed by the court to represent defendant who was an indigent. At the hearing defendant testified at length. We have a transcript of his testimony before us. After listening to the testimony, Judge Bailey entered a judgment in substance as follows: That the petitioner was tried at the 8 April 1963 Regular Criminal Session of the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County; that he was represented at said trial by Elbert Foster, who had been appointed by the court to represent him and who also represented him at the preliminary hearing; that petitioner entered a plea of not guilty, and was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury and sentenced to a term of 15 years in prison, which he is now serving; that petitioner attempted to give notice of appeal and appeal his case to the Supreme Court and was not able to do so, and that in this there was a substantial denial of his right to appeal secured to him by the Constitution of the State of North Carolina. Based upon said findings, Judge Bailey adjudged that the petitioner shall be allowed to appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina; that the County of Mecklenburg shall provide him with a transcript of his trial at the 8 April 1963 Regular Criminal Session; that he shall be allowed to perfect said appeal In forma pauperis, and A. Marshall Basinger was appointed to represent said petitioner and to perfect his appeal. The transcript of the evidence at the hearing before Judge Bailey amply supports Judge Bailey's recital of facts.

The defendant testified in substance: He told Mr. Foster to appeal the case. Foster told him he had been made fool enough out of the case and that he did not want anything else to do with it, and he refused to appeal the case. Defendant's mother and stepfather went to Mr. Foster and asked him to appeal the case, and he would not. He filed no notice of appeal. When defendant was committed to prison, he wrote to the clerk of the Superior Court of Mecklenburg County several times trying to get a transcript and trying to find out how his case could be appealed to the Supreme Court. The answers he received from the clerk's office did not pertain to what he was writing about, and he could not get the information that he wanted until this year when he finally learned how to write a writ. This is the defendant's version. So far as the record discloses Mr. Foster did not testify, nor is there anything to show that he was given an opportunity to testify.

G.S. § 15--180 provides: 'In all cases of conviction in the superior court for any criminal offense, the defendant shall have the right to appeal * * *.' G.S. § 15--221 provides in substance, except when quoted, that the judge upon hearing a petition for a review of the constitutionality of his trial, if he finds with the petitioner, 'shall enter an appropriate order with respect to the judgment or sentence in the former proceedings under which the petitioner was convicted, and such supplementary orders as to rearraignment, retrial, custody, bail or discharge as may be necessary and proper.'

When Judge Bailey found at the hearing that defendant had been denied a substantial constitutional right, to wit, his right to appeal his case to the Supreme Court, he was correct in ordering his counsel to perfect an appeal from his trial at the 8 April 1963 Regular Criminal Session of Mecklenburg, and in ordering the county to furnish to him a transcript of his trial before Judge Clarkson. G.S. § 15--4.1; G.S. § 15--180; G.S. § 15--221; State v. Roux, 263 N.C. 149, 139 S.E.2d 189; Douglas v. People of State of California, 372 U.S. 353, 83 S.Ct. 814, 9 L.Ed.2d 811, reh. den. 373 U.S. 905, 83 S.Ct. 1288, 10 L.Ed.2d 200; Griffin v. People of State of Illinois, 351 U.S. 12, 76 S.Ct. 585, 100 L.Ed. 891, 55 A.L.R.2d 1055, reh. den. 351 U.S. 958, 76 S.Ct. 844, 100 L.Ed. 1480; Draper v. State of Washington, 372 U.S. 487, 83 S.Ct. 774, 9 L.Ed.2d 899; 43 N.C.L.Rev. 596.

This is a summary of the testimony in the trial at the 8 April 1963 Session before Judge Clarkson and a jury, except when quoted: About midnight on 13 January 1963 a witness, Larry Boyer, age 20, who knew defendant Willie E. Staten, left his girl friend's house and proceeded up Myers Street in the city of Charlotte until he came to the intersection of that street and Watkins Lane from which point and at a distance of less than half a block he observed three figures attacking a man. There was a street light about two feet from where this scuffle was taking place and he was able to recognize defendant Willie E. Staten as one of the assailants. He then proceeded to within about five feet of the scene. He saw defendant Staten and Ed Blake, the victim, scuffling and tussling in the street. He heard Ed Blake say, 'Please don't hit me anymore. I don't have any money.' He did not see Willie Staten strike Ed Blake with his hands or fists, but he saw swinging motions. After seeing Willie Staten and Ed Blake on Myers Street, he turned around and ran back down the street to his girl friend's house. When asked upon cross-examination why he did this, he stated, 'When I left my girl friend's house I was going home. I didn't go home because I wasn't going to walk past nobody looking for a fight.' He saw defendant again that night at the intersection of Myers Street and Second about five minutes after Blake was taken to the hospital. He had a conversation with defendant. He testified as follows: '(H)e asked me said, 'What is happening, Baby?' and I said, 'Ain't nothing happening.' I said, 'You all just damn near killed that old man.' He said, 'Who is, Baby, you don't know nothing and I don't know nothing.' At that time he and Jesse Earl Brown and June Lindsey were all together. What he really said after I told him that he had damn near killed the old man, he said, 'Cool it, Baby, you don't know nothing and I don't know nothing. " Willie Staten had on a sweater with different patterns of color in it and he had on a long white coat. The last time Boyer saw Ed Blake he was lying out there at the intersection of Myers and Second in a pool of blood, moaning and begging somebody to call somebody for some help. Boyer did not know how Ed Blake got from where he was being attacked to the intersection of Myers and Second Street where he was lying in a pool of Blood.

Dr. W. M. Summerville, who is a medical doctor, saw the body of the deceased victim, Ed Blake, on 13 January 1963 at a funeral home. He performed an autopsy and a blood alcohol test. From the autopsy and alcohol test, he can say definitely that Ed Blake was under the influence of alcohol at the time of his death and, in his opinion, Ed Blake died as a result of a stab wound in the chest, with resulting hemorrhage.

W. E. Dew, a member of the Charlotte Police Department in the Detective Bureau, saw the defendant shortly after he was arrested. He questioned him at the police department about a coat and defendant said that he had been wearing it on 13 January 1963. He questioned him concerning some flecks of some substance on the coat which appeared to be blood. He asked defendant to explain substances on his shoes, and defendant stated that there was nothing on the shoes because he had had them cleaned and polished the preceding day. He questioned defendant about a knife. Defendant stated that he got the knife some two weeks earlier from a friend, and that the knife just happened to be in his possession when he was arrested. The blade was approximately three and one-half inches long. He questioned him concerning the substance on the blade of the knife. Defendant said he knew nothing about any substance on the knife, but if there was a substance on it, it had gotten there before he got the knife. Dew told defendant that he wanted to have the coat and the knife examined at the State Bureau of Investigation to determine what the substance was that was on them. Defendant made no objection. Thereafter, Dew took the knife and the coat to the laboratory of the State Bureau of Investigation in Raleigh.

William S. Best is employed by the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation as a chemist. He has received an A.B. degree in chemistry and has done graduate work at the University of North Carolina. He conducted an examination of some spots found on the left sleeve of the long white coat which the evidence tended to show the defendant was wearing on the occasion in question. Mr. Best cut these spots out and ran a series of laboratory tests thereon for the purpose of ascertaining whether these spots were produced by blood and, if so, whether it was human blood. He testified that in his opinion the tests revealed that the substance was human blood. He made tests for blood on the knife also, but the quantity of blood thereon was insufficient to enable him to be completely sure that it was human blood.

Charles Miles testified in substance: After midnight on 13 January 1963 back of Big Wheel's house, he heard defendant bragging about how good his knife was, and defendant took it out and showed it to him. When Miles met defendant in the Big Wheel liquor joint, defendant told him that he (Miles) should have been ashamed of...