State v. . HowellState v. . Howell
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- BaRnhill
Tbе defendant’s primary assignment of error is directed to tbe failure of tbe court tо charge tbe jury as to its right to return a verdict of not guilty. This assignment of error must be sustained.
Tbе defendant did not testify in bis own bebalf and at no time admitted that be killed tbe deceаsed. His plea denied that be was guilty of any unlawful killing and challenged both tbe weight and сredibility of tbe evidence offered by tbe State. On this plea tbe burden rested upоn tbe State to show beyond a reasonable doubt that tbe defendant bad cоmmitted an unlawful killing before any verdict of unlawful homicide could be returned. While it is a rule with us that when it is proven or admitted that a defendant intentionally killed another with a deadly weapon certain presumptions arise which cast tbe burden upon tbe defendant to mitigate tbe killing or to excuse it altogether on tbe grounds of accident, misadventure or self-defense, this does not, and it has never been interprеted to, mean that tbe burden of showing an unlawful killing does not rest with tbe State throughout tbe triаl.
Tbe assumption by tbe court that it was admitted or proven that tbe defendant unlawfully killеd tbe deceased permeates tbe whole charge except in оne paragraph which was as follows :
“Now, Gentlemen of tbe Jury, tbe defendant sаys and insists that be is not guilty of any charge and, before you could find him guilty of any offense, tbе State must have satisfied you from tbe evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, be is guilty of tbe offense as to which you find him guilty.”
But tbe court bad charged tbe jury: “Tbe State in this case asks at your bands against tbe accused, Leslie Howell, a verdict of guilty of murder in tbe first degree. Tbe defendant has pleaded not guilty to that charge.” And further — еlaborating thereon — that tbe defendant says and insists that be did not kill with premeditation аnd deliberation; that be did not kill with malice; that be did not kill intentionally; that all be wanted to do was to get tbe officers out of bis bouse on that occa *282 sion; and that his passion, which had already been aroused on account of the altercation with his wife, suddenly became so aroused that what he did was done in the heat of passion. It further charged: “He says- and insists therefore . . . that (manslaughter) is the most that yоu can render against him, and the one contention of counsel in his argument was thаt that was all the verdict that could be rendered”; and again, “the accused in this еase does not contend that he is not guilty of some offense. His counsel in his argument to you did not contend that you ought not to return a verdict of guilty against the defendant, but his counsel did contend that the most you should return against the defendant in this case wоuld be a- verdict of guilty of manslaughter.”
At no time did the court instruct the jury that it could or should under any circumstances return a verdict of not guilty. Nor did the court require the jury to find, as аn essential element of the crime charged, that the deceased fired the shot which inflicted the fatal wound or that the deceased died from the wound inflictеd.
There is no exception to the quoted excerpts from the charge. However, consideration thereof serves but to emphasize the fact that the inadvertence of the court in the respects indicated deprived the dеfendant of a substantial right and was prejudicial and harmful. S. v. Helms, 181 N. C., 566, 107 S. E., 228; S. v. Castle, 133 N. C., 769, 46 S. E., 1; S. v. Maxwell, 215 N. C., 32, 1 S. E. (2d), 125; S. v. Redman, 217 N. C., 483. Under the charge as given the jury must have felt that a verdict at least of guilty of manslaughter was imperative.
Therе is ample evidence in the record to sustain the charge of murder in the first degrеe and it may be that upon a retrial the same result will be reached. And yet it is important that a defendant, however humble or defenseless he may be, shall not suffer the penalty of death until he has been convicted in a trial in which there has beеn a scrupulous observance of constitutional and statutory safeguards prоtecting and preserving his rights. When there is a general plea of not guilty and no admission of an unlawful killing the death penalty will be exacted only upon the verdict of а jury which has been given full opportunity to pass upon the weight and credibility of the evidence and only after it has been instructed as to its right to return, and the conditions upon which it should render, a verdict of not guilty.
New trial.