Title: State v. Hooker
Citation: 243 N.C. 429, 90 S.E.2d 690
Docket Number: 724
State: north-carolina
Issuer: north-carolina Supreme Court
Date: January 13, 1956

90 S.E.2d 690 (1956)
243 N.C. 429
STATE
v.
Willie Garfield HOOKER, Charlie Holden, and John Edward Williams.
No. 724.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.
January 13, 1956.
*691 Jennings G. King, Laurinburg, for defendant Hooker, appellant.
Wm. R. Rodman, Jr., Atty. Gen., Claude L. Love, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the State.
WINBORNE, Justice.
In apt time defendant, appellant, in writing requested the trial court to give these special instructions:
The court refused to give either of these instructions, and to the failure to do so, defendant excepted, and assigns same as error.
While the court is not required to give the instruction in the exact language of the request, if request be made for a specific instruction, which is correct in itself and supported by evidence, the court must give the instruction at least in substance. State v. Booker, 123 N.C. 713, 31 S.E. 376; State v. Henderson, 206 N.C. 830, 175 S.E. 201; State v. Pennell, 232 N.C. 573, 61 S.E.2d 593.
Indeed, here the requested instructions find support in decisions of this Court. State v. Barber, 113 N.C. 711, 18 S.E. 515; State v. Williams, 185 N.C. 643, 116 S.E. 570; State v. Ashburn, 187 N.C. 717, 122 S.E. 833.
However, the court did give general instructions in this respect. But defendant contends, and we think rightly so, that the charge as given by the court failed to cover substantially the matters included in the requested instruction in that: The court failed to instruct the jury (1) "that Purcell and Williams were actually accomplices, according to their testimony," and (2) "that their testimony as to defendant's participation in the alleged offense was unsupported by any other evidence in the case."
For error thus pointed out, there must be a
New trial.