Court Opinion

ID: 9578503
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:45:51.868554+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:11.519637
License: Public Domain

*119Justice MARTIN
concurring.
Except as herein set out, I concur in the well reasoned majority opinion and in the result reached. With respect to the ruling of the trial judge allowing the jury to take certain exhibits to the jury room, counsel did not brief or argue the constitutionality of N.C.G.S. 15A-1233(b). However, upon considering that issue, I find the statute constitutionally suspect as a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers. N.C. Const, art. I, § 6 and art. IV, § 1. The legislature cannot control the actions of the courts over what exhibits, properly admitted, can be carried by the jury into its jury room during its deliberations. Such action by the legislature is an unconstitutional intrusion and interference with the internal workings of the trial of a jury case. What evidence should or should not be taken to the jury room is a matter peculiarly within the knowledge and discretion of the trial judge on a case by case basis. The trial judge’s duty to seek after justice should not be hampered by requirements that evidence cannot be taken into the jury room except by consent of all counsel. It is the duty and responsibility of the trial judge to supervise and control a trial in order that injustice to any party may be prevented. State v. Spaulding, 288 N.C. 397, 219 S.E. 2d 178 (1975), vacated on other grounds, 428 U.S. 904, 49 L.Ed. 2d 1210 (1976). To this end the court has broad discretionary powers.
I repeat my views concerning the extension of the plain error doctrine to evidentiary matters. State v. Black, 308 N.C. 736, 303 S.E. 2d 804 (1983) (Martin, J., concurring).