State v. Strickland

• Decision Date: 05 November 1987
• Docket Number: No. 569A86,569A86
• Citation: 321 N.C. 31,361 S.E.2d 882
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. William Kelly STRICKLAND.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 882

361 S.E.2d 882

321 N.C. 31

STATE of North Carolina v. William Kelly STRICKLAND.

No. 569A86.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Nov. 5, 1987.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by Dennis P. Myers, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the State.

R. Gene Braswell, S. Reed Warren, and Glenn Alton Barfield, Goldsboro, for defendant-appellant.

WHICHARD, Justice.

Defendant was convicted of first degree murder, kidnapping, and discharging a firearm into an occupied motor vehicle. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, forty years (consecutive) for the kidnapping, and ten years (consecutive) for firing into the motor vehicle. We find no error.

The State's evidence, in pertinent summary, showed the following:

Defendant and his wife, Myra Strickland, were separated. On 9 July 1985, Bishop Edith H. Dickerson, Ms. Strickland's minister, picked her up from her mother's house in Wilson and drove her to church in Rocky Mount for the evening service. After the service, at about 10:00 p.m., Bishop Dickerson and Ms. Strickland left the church. They saw defendant's car parked across the street with defendant sitting inside. Robert Bayman, defendant's friend, was walking down the street. The women drove behind defendant's car, then went back to the church. While Ms. Strickland called the police, defendant walked up to the church and Bishop Dickerson met him at the door. Defendant told her that he had heard that she was a lesbian and that he would "get [her]." He left when she refused to let him in the church. The two women then left and drove to Wilson. On their way, defendant's car passed them. Bayman was driving and defendant was in the passenger seat. Bishop Dickerson dropped Ms. Strickland off at her mother's home between 10:30 and 10:45 p.m.

Defendant had asked Bayman to drive him to Rocky Mount that evening to see a girlfriend. They met at a bootlegger's house, where they each had one drink. Bayman testified that defendant was not drunk at that time. Bayman and defendant then drove to another house, where they had a second drink. While there, defendant shot a pistol several times between his legs and over his shoulder. They left at about 8:30 p.m.

When they arrived in Rocky Mount, they stopped at a place where defendant said he was going to visit a woman. Defendant walked off. After a few minutes he rushed back to Bayman, telling him to run. They drove to a gas station, where defendant asked Bayman to hide the car and wait. Defendant pointed a gun at Bayman, telling him to get out of the car because he was going to kill someone. When Bayman refused to get out, defendant ordered him to follow a car that had passed. He followed this car, which was Bishop Dickerson's, to Ms. Strickland's mother's house. Ms. Strickland got out and Bishop Dickerson drove away. Bayman continued to follow her car. After several miles, defendant asked Bayman to pull up beside her car. Defendant aimed a gun out of his window, telling Bishop Dickerson to stop. The cars jostled for position on the road, during which time defendant fired several shots at Bishop Dickerson's car and threatened Bayman with the gun.

When Bishop Dickerson stopped her car, defendant got inside and slapped her twice. Her car then pulled down a dirt road. Bayman followed in defendant's car. When Bayman drove around a curve in the road, he saw Bishop Dickerson's car in some trees. He saw defendant get out of the car and empty shells from his gun into his hand. Defendant stated, "She is dead now." Bayman said, "[M]an, you didn't kill that lady." Defendant answered, "[Y]es, I did." Bayman saw Bishop Dickerson in the car with a wound in her chest. She appeared to be dead. Bayman and defendant drove to a convenience store in Wilson. When police cars pulled up, defendant ran away.

An assistant medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Bishop Dickerson testified that a "bullet wound track" perforated the upper part of her heart and aorta, causing her to die from massive internal bleeding.

Although defendant did not call any witnesses at trial, he attempted to show, through cross-examination of the State's witnesses, that he was insane at the time of the offenses.

Defendant first assigns as error the trial court's denial of his pretrial motion to prohibit the prosecutor from "death qualifying" the jury. Defendant contends that the court's "blanket" denial of this motion violated his right to trial by a jury composed of a representative cross-section of the community. He argues that the court should not have ruled on this motion until the State attempted to excuse particular prospective jurors because they were opposed to capital punishment, and that the court should have made an individual evaluation of each person to see if he or she would impose the death penalty.

Defendant's argument has no merit. The United States Supreme Court recently held that the federal constitution does not prohibit states from "death qualifying" juries in capital cases. Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U.S. 162, 106 S.Ct. 1758, 90 L.Ed.2d 137 (1986). We have held that the practice of "death qualifying" juries in capital cases violates neither the United States Constitution nor the North Carolina Constitution. State v. Barts, 316 N.C. 666, 343 S.E.2d 828 (1986).

Defendant further contends that the court erred by allowing the State to ask Myra Strickland whether defendant knew the difference between right and wrong during June 1985 and by allowing Ms. Strickland to answer. Defendant argues that the question and answer have no probative value because, first, the terms "right and wrong" are relative, and, second when a defendant raises the insanity defense, the proper question is not whether the defendant knew right from wrong generally, but whether he or she had the mental capacity "to distinguish between right and wrong at the time and in respect of the matter under investigation." State v. Benton, 276 N.C. 641, 652, 174 S.E.2d 793, 800 (1970) (quoting State v. Jones, 229 N.C. 596, 598, 50 S.E.2d 723, 724 (1948)) (prosecutor not permitted to ask psychiatrist on cross-examination whether defendant knew the difference between right and wrong on the day of the killing).

We conclude that our decision in State v. Boone, 302 N.C. 561, 276 S.E.2d 354 (1981), governs this case. In Boone, the district attorney asked the defendant's father on cross-examination whether defendant knew right from wrong. The father answered that "at times he knew the difference between right and wrong." We held that the trial court did not err in admitting the question and answer because lay opinion concerning the mental capacity of a defendant in a criminal case is admissible. Id. at 565, 276 S.E.2d at 357. Similarly, the trial court in the present case did not err when it allowed the State to ask Ms. Strickland whether defendant knew the difference between right and wrong in June 1985 and when it allowed Ms. Strickland's affirmative response.

We note that the adoption of N.C.G.S. § 8C-1, Rule 701, did not effect a substantive change in the law regarding the admissibility of lay opinions of sanity. The witness here had first-hand knowledge regarding defendant's sanity and her opinion could have been helpful to the jury. See State v. Davis, 321 N.C. 52, 361 S.E.2d 724 (1987).

Assuming, arguendo, that the trial court erred, the error was harmless. On cross-examination, defense counsel asked Ms. Strickland whether she had told defendant's sisters that defendant had run around his yard naked and urinated on trees like a dog, whether defendant had been in a mental hospital, whether he waked his family up at night to go "bird blinding," whether he drove his truck down the road at excessive speeds with the doors open and his family inside, and whether he had injured his head during a motorcycle accident. Further, defense counsel asked Robert Bayman whether defendant was in "his right state of mind" at some point prior to the killing and whether he had a reputation in the community for being crazy. Some of the incidents about which defense counsel asked Bayman and Ms. Strickland allegedly occurred prior to June 1985, even months and years earlier. In light of these questions and the evidence elicited thereby, the question to Ms. Strickland of whether defendant knew right from wrong in June 1985, and her affirmative response, could not have prejudiced defendant. N.C.G.S. § 15A-1443(a).

Several of defendant's assignments of error address the direct and cross-examination of State's witness Robert Bayman.

Defendant first complains that the court erred by allowing the State to ask Bayman whether, in his opinion, defendant was intoxicated on 9 July 1985. Defendant contends that the State did not lay a proper foundation for the admission of Bayman's opinion because the evidence at trial had not shown that Bayman had had an adequate opportunity to observe defendant before they left the bootlegger's house. In State v. Dawson, 228 N.C. 85, 88, 44 S.E.2d 527, 529 (1947), we held that:

A lay witness is competent to testify whether or not in his opinion a person was drunk or sober on a given occasion on which he observed him. The conditions under which the witness observed the person, and the opportunity to observe him, go to the weight, not the admissibility, of the testimony.

Bayman testified that he was with defendant at the bootlegger's house and saw defendant take a drink. Since Bayman had the opportunity to observe defendant, he was competent to give his opinion as to whether defendant was intoxicated at that time.

During direct examination, Bayman testified that when he and defendant left the crime scene, defendant said, "[I]f you tell anybody ... I am going to gets [sic] you next." When the prosecutor asked Bayman whether he believed defendant, Bayman replied, "I said, yes, I believe him because I felt like if he knocked a lady off he would knock a man off." Defendant contends that Bayman's statement was...