Title: State v. Hines
Citation: 211 S.E.2d 201, 286 N.C. 377
Docket Number: 15
State: north-carolina
Issuer: north-carolina Supreme Court
Date: January 31, 1975

211 S.E.2d 201 (1975)
286 N.C. 377
STATE of North Carolina
v.
Bobby HINES et al.
No. 15.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.
January 31, 1975.
*203 Atty. Gen. Robert Morgan by Asst. Atty. Gen. James E. Magner, Jr., Raleigh, for the State.
Grover Prevatte Hopkins, Tarboro of the North Carolina Bar; Morris Dees, Jr., and Charles F. Abernathy, Montgomery, Ala. of the Alabama Bar for defendants.
BRANCH, Justice.
Defendants assign as error the failure of the trial judge to grant their motions for nonsuit.
Rape is the carnal knowledge of a female person by force and against her will. The force necessary to constitute rape need not be physical force. Fear, fright, or coercion may take the place of force. State v. Flippin, 280 N.C. 682, 186 S.E.2d 917; State v. Primes, 275 N.C. 61, 165 S.E.2d 225; State v. Carter, 265 N.C. 626, 144 S.E.2d 826; State v. Thompson, 227 N.C. 19, 40 S.E.2d 620.
In passing upon a motion for judgment as of nonsuit, the trial judge must consider all the evidence admitted, whether competent or incompetent, in the light most favorable to the State, giving the State the benefit of every reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence and considering so much of defendant's evidence as may be favorable to the State. In considering the motion, the Court is not concerned with the weight of the testimony, or with its truth or falsity, but only with the question of whether there is sufficient evidence for the jury to find that the offense charged has been committed and that defendant committed it. State v. McNeil, 280 N.C. 159, 185 S.E.2d 156; State v. Murphy, 280 N.C. 1, 184 S.E.2d 845; State v. Cooke, 278 N.C. 288, 179 S.E.2d 365; State v. Primes, supra; State v. Cutler, 271 N.C. 379, 156 S.E.2d 679.
The only question of fact presented for determination by the jury was whether defendants obtained carnal knowledge of the prosecuting witness by force and against her will or whether the acts were done with her consent. The prosecuting witness testified that she did not consent to any one of the defendants having sexual relations with her and that each of the acts of intercourse was against her will. She stated that their strength was greater than hers and that she feared for her life. We *204 note that in the oral argument before this Court, counsel for defendants conceded that the evidence was sufficient to require submission of the case to the jury.
We hold that there was substantial evidence of all material elements of the crime of rape as to each defendant and that the trial judge properly overruled the motions for nonsuit.
Appellants, by their Assignment of Error Number 15, contend that certain statements made by the solicitor during the voir dire examination of prospective jurors were so prejudicial as to entitle them to a new trial.
After three jurors had been seated, the following exchange occurred:
We do not find that this Court has ruled upon the effect of similar statements by the solicitor during voir dire examinations of prospective jurors in a capital case; however, we find guidance in our cases in which the solicitors have made like remarks during jury arguments.
In State v. Little, 228 N.C. 417, 45 S.E.2d 542, the solicitor stated in his closing argument that "in all first degree cases where men were convicted there would be an appeal to the Supreme Court, and that in this case, if this defendant were convicted [sic] there would be an appeal to the Supreme Court, and that in the event the decision of the lower court should be affirmed, there would be an appeal to the Governor to commute the sentence of the prisoner; and that not more than sixty per cent of prisoners convicted of capital offenses were ever executed." Even though counsel for defendant subsequently told the trial judge that he did not desire an instruction to disregard this improper statement, this Court held such statement to be prejudicial error. Justice Winborne (later Chief Justice), writing for the Court, stated:
In State v. Hawley, 229 N.C. 167, 48 S.E.2d 35, the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. During the trial of this case, the solicitor, in his final argument to the jury, in part, argued:
No objection was made to the argument. This Court, nevertheless, granted a new trial, and, inter alia, stated:
See also State v. Dockery, 238 N.C. 222, 77 S.E.2d 664.
Other jurisdictions have considered remarks comparable to those here challenged, which, as here, were made during the voir dire examination of prospective jurors in capital cases.
In People v. Johnson, 284 N.Y. 182, 30 N.E.2d 465, the district attorney, over defendant's objection, asked numerous prospective *206 jurors, on their voir dire examination, whether they knew that, if defendant were convicted and received the death sentence, any jury error could be corrected by judicial appeal or executive clemency. The Court, faced with "such grave error at the very threshold of the trial as to make it doubtful whether the jury could thereafter render a verdict with full appreciation of its responsibility," reversed the conviction and forcefully explained its reasoning, as follows:
A similar holding appears in Blackwell v. State, 76 Fla. 124, 79 So. 731, where the defendants were charged with murder. During the voir dire examination of prospective jurors, the assistant State's attorney, in the presence of the veniremen, stated that the future action of the Board of Pardons was entitled to consideration by them. The Court granted a new trial and condemned this statement on the theory that it fixed in the minds of the jurors the thought that if they erred in returning a verdict of guilty, the Board of Pardons might or would correct it. See generally, as to prosecutorial indiscretions at various stages of the trial, Annotation, 16 A.L.R.3d 1137; Annotation, 3 A.L.R.3d 1448.
We hold that in a capital case improper statements made by a solicitor in the presence of prospective jurors during their voir dire examination may well be as prejudicial as a similar statement made by him during argument to the jury.
The position and grave responsibilities of a public prosecutor as the representative of the sovereign were clearly enunciated by Justice Sutherland in Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 55 S. Ct. 629, 79 L. Ed. 1314. We quote from that opinion:
In the context of cases before us, the statement of the solicitor, professedly made to "ease" the "feelings" of a juror concerning her misgivings regarding the death penalty, suggested to the jurors, both prospective and seated, that if verdicts of guilty were returned, the mandatory death penalty, in all probability, might not or would not be imposed.
It is the province of a juror to return a verdict which speaks the truth. This duty is his sole responsibility. We cannot allow this solemn obligation to be diluted by statements aliunde the record and foreign to his single duty. In these volatile and *207 bitterly contested cases, in which three human lives hung in the balance, we think the solicitor's statement was intended to, and in all probabilty did, lighten the solemn burden of the jurors in returning their verdict.
We hold that the challenged statement of the solicitor was improper and unduly prejudicial to these defendants.
We do not deem it necessary to discuss the remaining assignments of error since, in all probability, they will not recur at the next trial.
New trial.
COPELAND and EXUM, JJ., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.