Opinion ID: 1312718
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Circumstance (3): Defendant's Age at the Time of the Crime

Text: There was nothing about the defendant's age of twenty-two years which was mitigating. The defendant lacked neither chronological nor mental maturity. At age twenty-two, he had attained the age of majority and was fully responsible for his acts. He had been self-supporting since the age of sixteen. He had been emancipated since the age of seventeen and a half, when he went into the army. He married at the age of twenty. Any one of these circumstances qualified him as an adult and as fully emancipated under N.C. G.S. § 7A-717. Defendant contends that his limited educational experience somehow has a bearing on the age mitigating circumstance, since he quit school at the age of fifteen and a half while in the ninth grade. The evidence shows that defendant's educational experience was neither minimal nor even limited. Defendant went into the military, had no trouble getting through basic training, and successfully completed the course in small engine repair given by the military. The evidence further shows defendant had sufficient intelligence to complete his GED while in prison. Defendant had been in the military since age seventeen and a half, had been self-supporting, had married and had a child, had lived in different areas of the United States, had met and seen a variety of people, and thus had a varied and mature life experience. The evidence in this case simply does not support the proposition that defendant's age was a mitigating circumstance.