Court Opinion

ID: 9811820
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:29:46.209827+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:21:43.077681
License: Public Domain

*625Douglas, J.,
concurring. In concurring’ in the opinion of the Court it is needless to remind the profession of the responsibility of him in whose hands rests the life of a fellow being. That responsibility must be fully met without fear or favor, and the result determined solely by the law of the land, and the facts of the case. If the facts were different, so would bo my opinion; and hence, I am unwilling to have my action judged upon any supposed state of facts, not shown in the record. This would be equally unjust to the prisoner and to the Court- If the prisoner had rushed out of the house, armed with a butcher knife, and had immediately made a sudden and murderous assault, my opinion would be different ; but this the prisoner did not do, and I can find no witness that says he did. There were only three men in the party. ■ Cawthorn was killed, and Garner swears that he ran away when the dog began to ba,rk, and did not com© back until after the assault on Cawthorn, and immediately left again. So, Winfree was the only witness who was present when the prisoner came to the gate.
What does Winfree say? These are his exact words, on cross-examination, as taken from the record: “Prisoner came out and asked if that was Pendergrass; I said ‘no;’ I then said to Cawthorn ‘we can get a ride;’ prisoner said That is my father and mother;’ am almost positive that I said, Sve’11 shoot the damn dog;’ can’t say whether this was before or after I said we would get a ride; it was all about the same time.” And again Winfi’ee says: “Had noi feeling against prisoner; did not know him then; was not under the influence of whiskey; prisoner seemed friendly when he came to the gate; he did not seem to he mad/’ Where then is the rushing out of his house, and the sudden murderous attack ? Here were three disguised men who were already guilty of an affray under the laws of this State, and whom the prisoner *626knew to be armed, as a pistol bad just been fired; and yet tliis evidence shows that the prisoner came out to the gate in a friendly manner, asked if it was Mr. Pendergrass, and never struck a blow until after an assault was threatened upon his aged parents, coupled with the equivocal remark, “We’ll shoot the damn dog.” And yet we are told that the prisoner had no provocation beyond the boisterous conduct of a harmless roisterer. There are no harmless roisterers. That species of roisterer, if it ever existed, became extinct before the dawn of history. Various definitions of the word are given in tire dictionaries, all unfavorable. The Century Dictionary says it is derived from the old French word “rusterer” meaning ruffian. The word is Shakesperian, and if we look to Shakespeare, and the current literature of the times, we shall learn the character of the “roistering blades” that followed EaJstaff and Prince Hal. So far from being harmless, they became such an. unmitigated nuisance that their leader was sent to jail, although the son of England’s king, and the heir of England’s throne.
Let us reverse the case, for the sake of argument: Suppose that three negroes, disguised and armed, had come to a white man’s house, and after he had come to the gate in a friendly manner, had threatened to get into the cart with his aged father and mother, what would he probably do ? I fear it would not require any premeditation for a ready weapon to meet a willing hand.
I have no intention whatever of abolishing capital punishment by judicial construction. In fact, it should be remembered that the distinction between murder in the first and second degree was not made by the decisions of the Court, but by an express act of the Legislature, chap. 85 of the Laws of 1893.
At the February Term, 1894, in State v. Fuller, 114 N. C., *627885, tbis statute was construed as casting upon the State the burden of proving premeditation. The concluding paragraph of the opinion of the Court, delivered by Justice Aveey, meets my unqualified approval. This decision has been uniformly followed, and was approved by a unanimous Court, in State v. Booker, 123 N. C., 713.
T do not say that the prisoner is innocent of crime. If the verdict had been for manslaughter, or even for murder in the second degree, I would not have felt justified in disturbing the judgment of the Court below,for the killing with a deadly weapon presumes malice, but not premeditation.
In conclusion, I can only say that I am not a follower of Draco, and have no desire to be considered the especial avenger of blood. I can do the right only as I am given to see the right; and I have no ambition beyond the performance of my duty in such a manner as to make everyone feel and know that, so far as depends upon me, no one is so rich and powerful as to be beyond the avenging arm of the law, and none so poor and humble as to be beneath its eompletest protection.