State v. Suggs

• Decision Date: 31 October 1883
• Citation: 89 N.C. 527
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. JOHN T. SUGGS.

89 N.C. 527

STATE

v.JOHN T. SUGGS.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

October Term, 1883.

INDICTMENT for highway robbery tried at Fall Term, 1882, of CRAVEN Superior Court, before McKoy, J.

On the trial, one Henry Rouse, a witness for the state, testified that there had been a preliminary examination of the charge against the defendant, in which, declarations of Peter Donan, the person alleged to have been robbed, were used as his dying declarations, and the defendant was committed; that afterwards, Peter Donan came to Newbern, when Thomas Stanley, the justice of the peace before whom the said examination was had, caused the defendant to be taken from the jail to his office (a different place from that of the trial) for the purpose of the identification of the defendant by Donan. When the defendant arrived, Donan and a crowd were assembled in the office. Some one asked Donan, “do you know who robbed you?” He looked at the defendant, and answered, “I don't know, but the man who passed by and told Henry Rouse that I was a robber, was the man who robbed me”; that the man, “he had on a blue shirt and a black coat, and wanted to ride with me, but I objected”; and he stated further, that the man who robbed him said he was an officer, and grabbed him and beat him, and took $18.75 from him.

The witness (Rouse) then said to Donan, “then say who robbed you.” This, as well as what Donan said, was spoken in the presence of the defendant, who was at the time in the custody of the sheriff, and the defendant said to the witness (Rouse), “Henry, I am willing to bear my part, you must bear your part,” and then Donan said, “Henry did not help in the matter.”

The witness also stated that there was no trial going on at the time, nor did the justice of the peace take down anything in writing.

Thomas Stanley, the justice, a witness for the state, testified that the trial of the defendant was held by him before that time, and at a different place, and defendant was, on the occasion alluded to by Rouse, ordered before him for identification; that he had no recollection of the conversation testified to by Henry Rouse, nor did he remember that any trial was had that day, or whether anything was taken down in writing, though he might have asked some questions.

The defendant objected to the admission of this testimony, but the court finding as facts, that the conversation testified to by Rouse was in the presence and hearing of the defendant at a time when no trial was going on; that there were no threats or promises made to defendant; that what defendant said was voluntary, as there was no evidence that any one requested or urged him to say anything, and that there was no proof that the conversation was ever reduced to writing, overruled the objection, and the defendant excepted.

This constitutes the first ground of the motion for a new trial, and the second is to the comments of the prosecuting attorney in addressing the jury, which the defendant contends was an abuse of his privilege, and that the court erred in not stopping him.

The remarks complained of: One of the witnesses having stated that he heard the defendant had been in the penitentiary, the counsel said: “Now, I do wish, in the interest of a fair trial, if that is not true, the defendant had some witness to deny it. But then, I thought only the defendant knew whether that was true, and the law does not permit counsel to comment upon the defendant's failure to testify.” The alleged breach of privilege was not objected to or called at the time to the attention of the court, but on the next day after the verdict, in the statement of the grounds for a new trial.

Verdict of guilty; judgment; appeal by defendant.

Attorney-General, for the State .

No counsel for defendant.

ASHE, J.

There is no force in the first exception. His Honor, having found that the admission of the defendant was voluntary--not induced by any word or act of intimidation, or promise held out to him, and...