Court Opinion

ID: 9587257
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:20:13.126839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:11.552181
License: Public Domain

Justice Higgins
dissenting.
For the reasons here assigned, I am unable to join in this Court’s Order directing the Superior Court to impose a sentence of life imprisonment for the offense charged.
Whatever else may be said, there is no doubt that the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States eliminates the death penalty in this case. The only question is the manner in which the State should make the substitution. May we not assume the Supreme Court of the United States will permit the State to remove the death sentence and substitute life imprisonment in the manner provided by the State’s Constitution and required by its judicial decisions? The directive to this Court states “judgment insofar as it imposes the death sentence be reversed” (citing U. S. v. Jackson and U. S. v. Pope) and case remanded to the Supreme Court of North Carolina “for *373further proceedings.” Necessarily the further proceedings require the punishment be changed from death, as required by the trial court’s judgment, to life imprisonment. Clearly the mandate to this Court contemplates “further proceedings.” The mandate, therefore, is not self-executing. Otherwise there would be no necessity for “further proceedings.”
In North Carolina’s criminal cases the appellate court’s review is limited to the determination whether errors of law were committed in the trial. When a trial has been found to be free from error, the decision so finding is certified to the trial court and relief from the judgment must be through the action of the Governor (except for certain provisions involving post-conviction review). Article III, Section 5, (6) of the North Carolina Constitution provides: “Clemency. The Governor may grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons, after conviction, for all offenses (except in cases of impeachment), upon such conditions as he may think proper, subject to regulations prescribed by law relative to the manner of applying for pardons. ...” The Governor has constitutional authority, therefore, after conviction, to grant relief against all sentences except in cases of impeachment.
“Where the pardoning power is, by constitutional provision, vested in an executive officer, the courts have no jurisdiction in criminal cases to exercise a power to pardon, commute or reprieve; nor have they authority to grant immunity to one who has committed an offense, or to adopt a procedure to that end.” 39 Am. Jur., Pardon, Reprieve and Amnesty, § 23. Courts, page 531, citing among others, Sorrells v. United States, 287 U.S. 435. “ . . . (T)he power (to grant pardons, reprieves and commutations) . . . cannot, however, be restricted or limited by any act of the legislative or other branch of the government, in the absence of any grant of the power to restrict or limit in the constitutional provision conferring the power.” 39 Am. Jur., Pardon, Reprieve and Amnesty, § 24. Generally, page 532.
Some of my associates have expressed the view that this case, now in the courts, is out of the Governor’s hands. Surely this view is not correct. The Governor’s power has its source in the Constitution. Neither the Legislature nor the courts can take it away. The prisoner stands convicted and is under sentence by the trial court for a violation of State law. The trial court imposed the sentence required by statute for the offense *374charged. The sentence imposed is not vacated by any order from any court. This Court affirmed the sentence. True the Supreme Court of the United States said this Court committed error in approving the sentence and directed that the sentence of life imprisonment be substituted for the death sentence. Up to now the sentence of the trial court is on its record undisturbed. The Governor has power without appeal to reduce the sentence to life imprisonment, to a term of years, or to free her from it altogether. After conviction, the Governor has power to exercise clemency in all cases (except impeachment) on such conditions as he thinks proper. Should he not be permitted to exercise that power for the State and thus comply with the mandate? It seems apparent that the Supreme Court of the United States is not familiar with our constitutional provisions and our court procedures with respect to appellate review. I quote from a number of pertinent decisions:
State v. Jones, 69 N.C. 16:
“In equity cases and in civil actions the practice (of further hearing) has been common, but in criminal cases never to our knowledge. In the former cases this Court makes decrees and passes judgments, which may be reviewed. But in criminal cases we do not pass judgment. Such cases are sent up for our opinion only, which we certify to the court below, and there our jurisdiction ends.”
State v. Starnes, 94 N.C. 973:
“In appeals from judgments rendered in indictments, our jurisdiction is executed in reviewing and correcting errors in law committed in the trial of the cause, and to this alone.”
State v. Turner, 143 N.C. 641, 57 S.E. 158:
“But this Court has uniformly held that under the Constitution it has no power to entertain such motions in criminal cases, and has no desire to assume a function which can be more efficiently performed by the Executive.”
State v. Lewis, 226 N.C. 249 (cited with approval, In re Powell, 241 N.C. 288) :
“After a defendant has begun the service of his term, or at least when that takes place after the adjournment of the court, it is beyond the jurisdiction of the judge to alter it or interfere with it in any way. The power of pardon, *375parole or discharge during the term of imprisonment is by the Constitution the exclusive prerogative of the Governor.”
The Supreme Court of the United States sent us this directive: “ . . . (It) was ordered and adjudged on June 28, 1971, by this Court that the judgment of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, insofar as it imposes the death sentence, be reversed, United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570 (1968), Pope v. United States, 392 U.S. 651 (1968) ; and that this cause be remanded to the Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina for further proceedings.”
In no sense can it be said that the Supreme Court of North Carolina imposed a death sentence. The rule, as stated in the cases cited, and in many others (and none to the contrary), is that the Supreme Court of North Carolina reviews criminal cases and determines whether errors of law have been committed and when the certificate goes down that the Court finds no error, relief from the judgment becomes the responsibility of the Governor. Superior Court Judges are constitutional officers. Their sources of authority and power are the State Constitution and the Acts of the General Assembly. A verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree (absent a recommendation the punishment be life imprisonment) requires the imposition of the death sentence. G.S. 14-17. “ . . . (M)urder in the first degree . . . shall be punished with death.” North Carolina Constitution, Article XI, Section 2. No other judgment is authorized. State v. Westbrook, 279 N.C. 18, and cases therein cited. Neither the Supreme Court of North Carolina, nor the Supreme Court of the United States is the source of a superior court judge’s power. In a proper case, either may restrain the unauthorized use of the trial court’s power. In criminal cases, and in situations such as now confront us, the Governor’s power of clemency takes on emphasized significance. The Constitution, the State statutes and the decided cases harmonize and support the view that the authority of this Court ends when it certifies to the superior court that it finds no error in a criminal trial. At the time these cases were decided, the Court’s supervisory power was precisely the same as it is today.
In my opinion no effort whatever should be made to prevent, or to delay, compliance with the Court’s mandate in this case. However, in my opinion, compliance should be by order of *376the Governor who has the Constitutional power rather than by the Court which does not have it. The mandate thus is satisfied when the death sentence is effectively removed and a life sentence substituted. So long as the death sentence is effectively removed, the manner of removal may be by the agency of the State which has the power. To hold, as the Court now does, that only the Court can act for the State is to take a gimlet hole view of the mandate not required by its terms.
I have been taught to believe the State may regulate its judicial and other affairs as it deems proper so long as rights under the Constitution of the United States, the Acts of Congress and our treaties with foreign powers are not infringed. If this be so, the Governor’s commutation complies with the mandate. I do not share the view that the Court has exclusive power to commute the sentence of the trial court.
This one further comment: In no event may the verdict be set aside and a new trial ordered. Error either in the trial or the verdict of guilty is not suggested by any court. If the verdict should be set aside without the defendant’s procurement or approval, a plea of former jeopardy at another trial would present a grave constitutional question.
Since writing the above, it has come to my attention that on yesterday, September 6, 1971, in some manner not disclosed to me, there appeared in our Clerk’s office and by him marked filed, a paper giving the names of the six capital cases with this order: “The Motions for leave to proceed in forma pauperis are granted. The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. The judgments, insofar as they impose the death sentence, are reversed, United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570 (1968), Pope v. United States, 392 U.S. 651 (1968), and the cases are remanded for further proceedings.”
The original order reversing our decision in the case of Marie Hill is here quoted (the orders in the other five cases are similar):
*377“United States op America, SS:
The President op the United States op America
To the Honorable the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina,
Greetings :
Whereas, lately in the Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina, there came before you a cause between the State of North Carolina and Marie Hill, No. 2, wherein the judgment of the said Supreme Court was duly entered on the tenth day of December A. D. 1969, as appears by an inspection of the petition for writ of certiorari to the said Supreme Court and response thereto.
And Whereas, in the October Term, 1970, the said cause having been submitted to the Supreme Court op the United States on the said petition for writ of certiorari and response thereto, and the Court having granted the said petition:
On Consideration Whereof, it was ordered and adjudged on June 28, 1971, by this Court that the judgment of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, insofar as it imposes the death sentence, be reversed, United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570 (1968), Pope v. United States, 392 U.S. 651 (1968); and that this cause be remanded to the Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina for further proceedings.
Now, Therefore, the Cause is Remanded to you in order that such proceedings may be had in the said cause, in conformity with the judgment of this Court above stated, as accord with right and justice, and the Constitution and laws of the United States, the said writ notwithstanding.
Witness the Honorable Warren E. Burger, Chief Justice of the United States, the twenty-third day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and seventy-one.
/s/ Robert Seaver
Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States”
The mandate addressed to us ordered that our judgments, insofar as they impose the death sentence “be reversed.” The *378new paper filed yesterday (September 6, 1971) listing the six eases is not addressed to us or to any person. It lists six cases by number and name and then follows this: “The Motions for leave to proceed in forma, pauperis are granted. The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. The judgments, insofar as they impose the death sentence are reversed, United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570 (1968), Pope v. United States, 392 U.S. 651 (1968), and the cases are remanded for further proceedings. June 28, 1971. Mr. Justice Black dissents.”
My objection is that the Court now treats this special record filed September 6, addressed to no one, as the official record rather than the separate mandate in each case addressed “To the Honorable the Judges of the Supreme Court of North Carolina.” I think the unaddressed paper must give way to the duly authenticated mandate addressed to us which is that our judgment “be reversed.” If I am correct, this leaves an erroneous death sentence on the records of the superior court and so long as that sentence is unexpunged, the Governor’s authority to commute cannot be impinged by any court.
I dissent from the order.