Court Opinion

ID: 9808553
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:41:59.385979+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:21.357338
License: Public Domain

Allen, J.,
dissenting: A new trial is ordered upon the ground that the judge, before whom the action was tried, failed to recapitulate the evidence, and is based upon’the following excerpt from the charge: “Much testimony has been offered which I will not attempt to rehearse.”
This statement, standing alone, would create the impression that the judge did not state the evidence or the contentions of the parties, but when read in connection with the context it means nothing except that all of the evidence had not been recapitulated. The statement follows four pages of a charge, in which all of the evidence was referred to, and every contention of the parties stated. The charge is unusually clear, full, fair, and accurate, and a failure to further recapitulate the evidence was a favor to the defendant, instead of being injurious to him, because he offered no evidence, and a repetition of the evidence for the State would have béen simply to again call the attention of the jury to evidence against him.
It was doubtless for this reason that the defendant did not ask for further instructions, and I need not go further than the cases cited in the opinion to show that it has been the uniform ruling of this Court that an objection to a failure to recapitulate evidence will not be considered, when made after verdict, and when there has been no request for further instruction, as in this case.
In Simmons v. Davenport, 140 N. C., 412, the next sentences after the one quoted in the opinion is as follows: “But a party cannot ordinarily avail himself of any failure to charge in a particular way, and certainly not of the omission to give any special instruction, unless he has called the attention of the court to the matter by a proper prayer for instructions. So if a party would have the evidence recapitulated, or any phase of the ease arising thereon, presented in the charge, a special instruction should be requested.” And in S. v. Haney (19 N. C., 390), the second exception was “Because the judge recited the testimony for the prosecution, and did not recite that for the defense”; and a new trial was denied although the Court states that “it appears from the judge’s charge, which is spread upon the record, that his Honor did n.ot undertake to recapitulate the evidence to the jury, but only to direct their attention to the important questions which they were called upon to investigate; and to explain to them the law applicable to the case.” The Davenport case goes further and says: “In Boon v. Murphy the respective duties of the judge and counsel under the act of 1796 (Rev., 535) are clearly and fully defined, and it is now commended as a safe guide in practice.”
*707When we turn to Boon v. Murphy (108 N. C., 191), we find it was field in tfiat case tfiat, “Wfien tfie facts are simple, or tfie judge ‘directs tfie attention of tfie jury to tfie principal questions tfiey fiare to investigate,’ as fiere, by stating tfie respective contentions of tfie parties, tfie failure to recapitulate tfie evidence is not error.”
Tfiis last ease, wfiiefi is commended as “a safe guide” in tfie Davenport case, is of special importance, as it declares tfiat failure to recapitulate tfie evidence is not error wfien tfie respective contentions of tfie parties are stated, and it will not be contended tfiis was not done in tfiis case.
Many otfier autfiorities could be cited to tfie same effect, but tfiese are, I think, sufficient to show tfiat a new trial ought not to be granted because of failure to recapitulate tfie evidence, wfien tfie defendant fias made no request for further instructions.
If we fiad tfie right to weigh tfie evidence, I would be strongly inclined to join Wallcer and Hoke, JJ., in setting aside tfie verdict, because there is much evidence to discredit tfie prosecutrix, but we have no such power, and she testified as to tfie first act of intercourse: “I pushed him — trie'd to push him back, but could not. I tried to push him back, but could do nothing with him.” And as to tfie second, “He asked me to lay down, and I told him I would not do it, and fie picked me up and tfirowed me down, and tore my underclothes off.”
If true, tfiis is rape, and tfie jury alone fias tfie right to decide tfie question.
What was said in Harris v. Turner, ante, 322, and quoted by Walker, J., in Forester v. Betts, ante, 608 and 681, in my judgment covers tfie whole ease. “Tfie Court said: “Jurors are not bound to accept as true all tfie testimony offered by tfie plaintiff or tfie defendant, but can accept a part and reject tfie remainder, being tfie sole judges of tfie testimony, and what it tends to prove, including tfie credibility of witnesses.
“If a party desired fuller or more specific instructions than those given by tfie court, fie must ask for them, and not wait until tfie verdict has gone against him, and then for the first time complain tfiat an error was committed.”
Clark, C. J., concurs in the opinion of Allen, J.