Court Opinion

ID: 9618521
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 05:13:20.794333+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:04:30.169177
License: Public Domain

Justice Frye
dissenting.
I dissent from that portion of the Court’s opinion which adopts the findings and conclusions of law contained in Judge Morgan’s orders of 12 August and 10 November 1994 and denies defendant’s motion for appropriate relief. I agree with Judge Morgan’s conclusion that defendant’s motion to dismiss should be denied. However, I disagree with his conclusion that defendant is not entitled to a new trial based on newly discovered evidence related to PCR/DNA analysis.
A defendant seeking a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence has a heavy burden to meet. As we said in State v. Britt:
Our usual standard for evaluating motions for a new trial on the grounds of newly discovered evidence requires a defendant to establish seven prerequisites:
1. That the witness or witnesses will give newly discovered evidence.
2. That such newly discovered evidence is probably true.
3. That it is competent, material and relevant.
4. That due diligence was used and proper means were employed to procure the testimony at the trial.
*6625. That the newly discovered evidence is not merely cumulative.
6. That it does not tend only to contradict a former witness or to impeach or discredit him.
7. That it is 'of such a nature as to show that on another trial a different result will probably be reached and that the right will prevail.
State v. Britt, 320 N.C. 705, 712-13, 360 S.E.2d 660, 664 (1987).
I believe defendant has established each of the seven prerequisites in this case. Judge Morgan, after conducting appropriate hearings and listening to the arguments of counsel, found that defendant had met the first six of these prerequisites, but not the seventh. The seventh prerequisite to obtaining a new trial on the basis of newly discovered evidence is that the newly discovered evidence “is of such a nature as to show that on another trial a different result will probably be reached and that the right will prevail.” Britt, 320 N.C. at 713, 360 S.E.2d at 664.
Judge Morgan found that “the newly discovered evidence is not of such a nature as to show that a different result, i.e. a finding of not guilty on all submitted bases of guilty, would probably be reached.” (Emphasis added.) Defendant was convicted of first-degree murder under the felony murder rule, on the bases that the murder occurred in the perpetration of four felonies: robbery with a dangerous weapon, rape, sexual offense, and kidnapping. The hearing judge found that while “the State’s theory on rape and sexual offense is somewhat weakened by the DNA evidence, its case overall is not fatally flawed.” Earlier, the judge found that the newly discovered evidence “would most directly contradict the State’s summation when (a) [the assistant special prosecutor] said[,] ‘They deposited their semen in her’. .. and (b) [the special prosecutor] referred to a yellow thick aspirated fluid . . . and said[,] ‘. . . [W]hat was [the victim] thinking when [this man right over here] spread those legs right there apart and he crawled down inside her and he raped and ravaged her and deposited some sickening yellow fluids in her body.’ ”
Among the newly discovered evidence in this case is a PCR/DNA report that states: “Darryl Hunt is eliminated as a possible source of the genetic material detected in this sample.” Given the State’s theory that the murder occurred during the perpetration of four felonies, including rape, and the fact that defendant’s defense was alibi, the *663PCR/DNA report eliminating defendant as the source of the sperm taken from the victim is powerful evidence tending to weaken the State’s entire case and strengthen defendant’s defense. Thus, I would hold that defendant has established the seventh prerequisite to a new trial: that the newly discovered evidence is of such a nature as to show that on another trial a different result will probably be reached and that the right will prevail.
I vote to allow the motion for appropriate relief by granting defendant a new trial.
Chief Justice EXUM and Justice WEBB join in this dissenting opinion.