State v. Taylor
| Decision Date | 28 May 1918 |
| Docket Number | 529. |
| Citation | 96 S.E. 22,175 N.C. 833 |
| Parties | STATE v. TAYLOR. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Buncombe County; Lane, Judge.
R. H. Taylor was convicted of abandoning his wife without providing adequate support, and he appeals. No error.
Where from a charge as a whole it was manifest that conviction could not be had unless abandonment of a wife was willful beyond a reasonable doubt, an omission of the word "willful" in one part of the charge, in referring to the elements of the crime, did not render the charge bad.
R. M. Wells, of Asheville, for appellant.
The Attorney General and R. H. Sykes, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
The only assignment of error relates to the charge of the court. It is contended that the court failed to instruct the jury that in order to convict they must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the abandonment was willful, as held to be essential in State v. Smith, 164 N.C. 477, 79 S.E. 979. We do not think the charge of the judge is justly amenable to such criticism. In one part of the charge, in referring to the constituent elements of the crime of abandonment, he omitted to use the word "willful." In other parts of the charge the judge was careful to explain that the abandonment, to be criminal, must be willful; that is, unnecessary and without just cause or legal excuse. Near the conclusion of the charge he instructed the jury in these words:
"But if you find that he willfully abandoned her and failed to provide adequate support for her, he would be guilty; but you must find these things beyond a reasonable doubt; if a reasonable doubt remains in your mind, you will return a verdict of not guilty."
Taking the charge as a whole, it is manifest that the jury must have understood that before they could convict they must find that the abandonment was willful, as well as without providing adequate support.
No error.
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...the instant case is to be upheld; and this would carry with it a reversal of State v. Smith, 164 N.C. 475, 79 S.E. 979, and State v. Taylor, 175 N.C. 833, 96 S.E. 22. But it said that in these cases the court, by "judicial legislation" has ingrafted something into the statute without author......
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