State v. . Coley

Citations

• 19 S.E. 705
• 114 N.C. 879

Syllabus

<p>Murder — Degrees— Trial — Evidence—• Character Witness— Opinion of Witness — Sanity.</p> <p>1. A witness will not be allowed to testify as to character until he shall have first qualified himself by stating that he knows the general reputation of the person in question.</p> <p>2. It is settled that the Legislature may by a saving clause in an act retain the provisions of the existing law in force as to all crimes committed prior to its passage; hence, the Act of 1893, changing the degrees of homicide and providing unequivocally that it should operate prospectively, does not apply to homicides theretofore committed.</p> <p>3. Where, in the trial of two persons for murder, it appeared that in a mutual affray and an unequal contest between the deceased, who was unarmed, and the two defendants, one of the latter threw deceased to the ground and held him there while the other procured an axe and crushed his skull, it was not error to instruct the jury that the defendants were guilty of murder, the circumstances of the holding by one and the hitting by the' other defendant being inconsistent with the legal conception of a killing in the heat of passion engendered in an encounter.</p> <p>4. While testimony as to mental capacity falls within the exception to the rule that no witness, other than qualified experts, shall be allowed to express his opinion in a matter submitted to the inquiry of a jury, yet insanity cannot be proved by general reputation or hearsay.</p> <p>5. It is the right of a defendant to be present when anything is said or done at the trial that may prove prejudicial to his interests; but where no instructions were given to the jury in the absence of the defendant he cannot complain that the Court, in his absence, • asked the jury if they desired any further instructions.</p>