Title: State v. Ball
Citation: 178 S.E.2d 377, 277 N.C. 714
Docket Number: 89
State: north-carolina
Issuer: north-carolina Supreme Court
Date: January 20, 1971

178 S.E.2d 377 (1971)
277 N.C. 714
STATE of North Carolina
v.
Carl James BALL.
No. 89.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.
January 20, 1971.
*379 Atty. Gen. Robert Morgan, Deputy Atty. Gen. R. Bruce White, Jr., and Staff Atty. Richard N. League, Raleigh, for the State.
William S. Geimer, Asst. Public Defender, for defendant appellant.
MOORE, Justice.
Defendant first assigns as error the court's denial of his motion that he be discharged because he had not been given a speedy trial. In support of this motion, defendant's counsel made a statement to the court, and the solicitor for the State made a statement in reply. From these statements the court made the following findings of fact:
The fundamental law of this State reserves to each defendant the right to a speedy trial. State v. Hatcher, 277 N.C. 380, 177 S.E.2d 892; State v. Johnson, 275 N.C. 264, 167 S.E.2d 274; State v. Hollars, 266 N.C. 45, 145 S.E.2d 309; State v. Patton, 260 N.C. 359, 132 S.E.2d 891; State v. Webb, 155 N.C. 426, 70 S.E. 1064. This was true long before the decision in Klopfer v. North Carolina, 386 U.S. 213, 87 S. Ct. 988, 18 L. Ed. 2d 1 (1967), in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the right to a speedy trial guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was made applicable to the states by the Fourteenth Amendment. The circumstances of each particular case determines whether a speedy trial has been afforded. Undue delay cannot be defined in terms of days, months, or even years. The length of the delay, the cause of the delay, prejudice to the defendant, and waiver by the defendant are interrelated factors to be considered in determining whether a trial has been unduly delayed. The burden is on the accused who asserts the denial of his right to a speedy trial to show that the delay was due to the neglect or willfulness of the prosecution. State v. Hatcher, supra; State v. Johnson, supra; State v. Hollars, supra; Note, Pre-indictment Delay and the Question of When the Right to a Speedy Trial First Attaches, 6 Wake Forest Intra.L.Rev. 139 (1969).
Defendant relies upon Dickey v. Florida, 398 U.S. 30, 90 S. Ct. 1564, 26 L. Ed. 2d 26 (1970), contending that under that case he is entitled to his discharge. In Dickey the Court held that a delay of seven years was unwarranted and ordered defendant released. However, Mr. Chief Justice Burger, speaking for the Court in that case, said: "Crowded dockets, the lack of judges or lawyers, and other factors no doubt make some delays inevitable," and in the same case Mr. Justice Brennan, in a concurring opinion, said:
And in another portion of this same opinion, Mr. Justice Brennan continues:
Dickey is clearly distinguishable from the case now under review. That case involved a delay of seven years; the case at bar involved a delay of 145 days from indictment to trial. In Dickey, Mr. Chief Justice Burger noted that actual prejudice to Dickey was shown by the fact that police *381 records were lost, two of his witnesses had died, and another witness was unavailable.
Judge McKinnon found that the delay in the present case was caused by a crowded docket, and by lack of a sufficient number of courtrooms and terms of court. Judge McKinnon further found that the case had been calendared for trial on one or more occasions but had not been reached because of the press of other business, and that the delay was partially to permit the prosecution of other criminal cases in which the defendants had been in jail longer than this defendant. The record does not disclose that defendant has been prejudiced in any manner by the delay, and defendant has failed to show that the delay was due to the neglect or willfulness of the State. Under these facts, we hold that the trial court correctly denied defendant's motion that he be discharged because he had not been given a speedy trial.
Defendant next assigns as error the trial court's failure to declare a mistrial on its own motion because the following occurred at the instance of the solicitor:
Telford Oxendine (Recalled), testified, without objection:
Sergeant Frye (Recalled):
Ordering a mistrial is a matter of discretion. State v. Brown, 266 N.C. 55, 145 S.E.2d 297; State v. Humbles, 241 N.C. 47, 84 S.E.2d 264; State v. Dove, 222 N.C. 162, 22 S.E.2d 231; State v. Guice, 201 N.C. 761, 161 S.E.2d 533. The judge's action is not reviewable unless there are circumstances establishing gross abuse. State v. Humbles, supra; State v. Guice, supra; State v. Andrews, 166 N.C. 349, 81 S.E. 416. No such abuse appears here. There was no objection to Oxendine's testimony, and the objection to Frye's testimony was sustained.
Justice Lake, in State v. Williams, 274 N.C. 328, 334, 163 S.E.2d 353, 357, states:
The defendant contends, however, that this case is controlled by State v. Phillips, 240 N.C. 516, 82 S.E.2d 762. There is no merit to this contention. In Phillips the solicitor asked defense witnesses a long series of questions which assumed facts not in evidence or misrepresented facts actually in evidence, or which were argumentative and called for answers which were objectionable. This Court allowed a new trial in Phillips, stating that the solicitor, by asking insinuating questions, was seeking to place before the jury incompetent and prejudicial matter not legally admissible. In the present case, the answer to only one question, without objection to that question or without motion to strike the answer, and the asking of one question to Sergeant Frye, to which objection was sustained, presents a factual situation entirely different from Phillips.
In the two assignments brought forward by the defendant, we find no error.
No error.