Court Opinion

ID: 9851959
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:22:14.083162+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:20.346216
License: Public Domain

Justice Sharp
dissenting.
Had defendant been convicted in a trial free from prejudicial error my vote would be to vacate the sentence of death and to remand the case to the Superior Court for the imposition of a life sentence for the reasons stated in the dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Bobbitt in State v. Atkinson, 275 N.C. 288, 323-328, 167 S.E. 2d 241, 262-265. See also the dissenting opinions in State v. Hill, 276 N.C. 1, 170 S.E. 2d 885; State v. Ruth, 276 N.C. 36, 170 S.E. 2d 897; State v. Roseboro, 276 N.C. 185, 171 S.E. 2d 886; State v. Sanders, 276 N.C. 598, 174 S.E. 2d 487. However, it is my conviction that the judge committed prejudicial error entitling defendant to a new trial when he charged the jury as follows:
“If you find him guilty of rape as charged in the bill of indictment and say no more; that is to say, if you do not recommend that his punishment shall be imprisonment for life, it will become the duty of this court, and you may rest assured that THE COURT WILL COMPLY WITH ITS DUTY AND SENTENCE HIM TO DIE.”
I find astonishing the statement in the majority opinion that the foregoing language “was more apt to invite a recommendation of life imprisonment than to even remotely suggest its omission.” It is inconceivable to me that the jury could have interpreted the gratuitous statement by the able and forceful *180trial judge to mean anything except that he believed defendant had committed a crime so dastardly that death was the only commensurate punishment.
Jurors know that a judge is bound by the law. They assume he will apply it to the best of his knowledge and expect no guaranty from him that he will do so. Judge Bailey’s specific assertion, that if the jury’s verdict so required they could “rest assured” the court would comply with its duty and sentence defendant to die, suggests that the jurors should likewise perform their duty with respect to the death penalty.
Our law, G.S. 1-180, forbids a judge, at any time during a trial, to intimate an opinion as fco the guilt or innocence of a defendant whether the crime for which he is being tried be a misdemeanor or a capital felony. This Court has always been quick to award a new trial in any case in which the judge has transgressed this statute, no matter how inadvertently he may have done so. State v. Hopson, 265 N.C. 341, 144 S.E. 2d 32; State v. Tessnear, 265 N.C. 319, 144 S.E. 2d 43; State v. Pugh, 250 N.C. 278, 108 S.E. 2d 649; State v. Oakes, 249 N.C. 282, 106 S.E. 2d 206. “The books disclose the fact that able and upright judges have sometimes overstepped the limit fixed by the law; but as often as it has been done this Court has enforced the injunction of the statute and restored the injured party to the fair and equal opportunity before the jury which had been lost by reason of the transgression, however innocent it may have been; and we must do as our predecessors have done in like cases.” Withers v. Lane, 144 N.C. 184, 190, 56 S.E. 855, 857.
When, as here, an accused has been convicted of a crime for which the punishment is either life or death, the decision is in the “unbridled discretion” of the jury. State v. McMillan, 233 N.C. 630, 65 S.E. 2d 212. In such a case the defendant is entitled to “the cold neutrality of the impartial judge” not only upon the issue of his guilt but also upon the question of his punishment. The jury’s discretion may not be influenced by any intimation from the judge.
In this case the solicitor inquired of each of the forty prospective jurors whether he had such moral or religious scruples against the death penalty that he could not return a verdict which would require the imposition of the death penalty even though he was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant *181was guilty as charged. Each juror who gave an affirmative answer to this question was successfully challenged by the State. The State’s evidence tended to show that defendant was guilty of raping his four-year-old stepdaughter. It revealed a horrible and incomprehensible crime. Defendant offered no evidence. As a practical matter the only question for the jury was whether defendant should suffer death or life imprisonment for his crime. In such a situation it was incumbent upon the judge “at all times to be on the alert, lest, in an unguarded moment, something be incautiously said or done to shake the wavering balance which, as minister of justice, he is supposed, figuratively speaking, to hold in his hand.” Withers v. Lane, supra at 192, 56 S.E. at 857.
Judge Bailey’s reaction to the crime for which defendant now stands convicted is understandable. Notwithstanding, the law has strictly enjoined the judge from imparting to the jury any knowledge of his own opinion of the case. In speaking to trial judges in 1822, almost one hundred and fifty years ago, Chief Justice Taylor said, “I am not unaware of the difficulty of concealing all indications of the conviction wrought on the mind by evidence throughout a long and complicated cause; but the law has spoken and we have only to obey.” Reel v. Reel, 9 N.C. 63, 92.
For the reasons stated I vote for a new trial.
Chief Justice Bobbitt joins in this dissenting opinion.