Opinion ID: 1227819
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mere Words as Sufficient Legal Provocation.

Text: Defendant concedes that the above italicized portions of the court's charge represent a correct statement of the common law, accepted and recognized as the law of this State from the first reported cases. See, e. g., State v. Tackett, 8 N.C. 210, 219 (1820); State v. Merrill, 13 N.C. 269 (1829); State v. Hill, 20 N.C. 629, 635 (1839); State v. Jarrott, 23 N.C. 76, 82 (1840); State v. Barfield, 30 N.C. 344, 349 (1848); State v. Howell, 31 N.C. 485 (1849). See also 7 Encyclopedic Digest of N.C. Reports, Homicide § 39 (1918). Defendant further concedes that this rule is almost uniformly recognized throughout the United States. See, e. g., Annot., 2 A.L.R.3d 1292 (1965); 40 Am.Jur.2d Homicide § 64 (1968); 40 C.J.S. Homicide § 47 (1944). Nonetheless, defendant contends that the doctrine in this State has gradually evolved into a per se rule that is not in accord with early judicial pronouncements of this Court. Therefore, he urges us to modify the present rule. In support of this contention, defendant relies heavily on language contained in the following three cases: State v. Norris, 2 N.C. 429 (1796); State v. Tackett, supra ; and State v. Jarrott, supra . Initially, we point out that State v. Norris, supra , is not an opinion of this Court. It is simply a summarized report of the actual trial of defendant over which Judges Williams and Haywood jointly presided as circuit superior court judges. There were only four such judges in this State at that time and further there was no appellate court. See Clark, C. J., History of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, 177 N.C. 617, 619 (1919). The language defendant cites in his brief as the opinion of the court is merely Judge Haywood's charge to the jury. We note that in his separate charge, Judge Williams told the jurors that he disagreed with certain portions of the law as previously stated by Judge Haywood and proceeded to instruct in accord with his own views. Accordingly, under these particular facts, this reported proceeding has no precedential value. On the other hand, both Tackett and Jarrott are decisions of this Court and both contain language that tends to support defendant's contention. However, the exceptions to the mere words doctrine recognized in both cases are totally without relevance today. In any event, any language in these cases not in accord with the following statement of Justice Stacy (later Chief Justice), speaking for the Court in State v. Benson, 183 N.C. 795, 799, 111 S.E. 869, 871 (1922), is expressly overruled. The legal provocation which will reduce murder in the second degree to manslaughter must be more than words; as language, however abusive, neither excuses nor mitigates the killing, and the law does not recognize circumstances as a legal provocation which in themselves do not amount to an actual or threatened assault. [Citations omitted.] This assignment of error as it relates to the mere words doctrine is overruled.