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207 N.C. 369

177 S.E 120

State v. . Green

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided November 21, 1934

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1934-11-21

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1934-11-21

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1980

4 state decisions

10193419401950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Stagy, O. J.,

¶1 after stating the case: In view of the defendant’s own testimony, which amounts to a confession of guilt, it would seem the questions sought to be presented are academic. The evidence offered by the State tends to show that Lester Green fired the fatal shot, while the defendants say Mike Stefanoff was the actual killer. The difference is not material on the present record.

¶2 When a conspiracy is formed, as here, to rob a bank, and a murder is committed by any one of the conspirators in the attempted perpetration of the robbery, each and all of them are guilty of the murder. S. v. Stefanoff, 206 N. C., 443; S. v. Bell, 205 N. C., 225, 171 S. E., 50. It is provided by C. S., 4200, that a murder “which shall be committed in *372 the perpetration or attempt to perpetrate any . . . robbery, burglary, or other felony, shall be deemed, to be murder in the first degree.” S. v. Satterfield, ante, 118; S. v. Donnell, 202 N. C., 782, 164 S. E., 352; S. v. Miller, 197 N. C., 445, 149 S. E., 590; S. v. Logan, 161 N. C., 235, 76 S. E., 1. The record discloses no evidence of a lesser degree of homicide. S. v. Spivey, 151 N. C., 676, 65 S. E., 995; S. v. Ferrell, 205 N. C., 640, 172 S. E., 186; S. v. Myers, 202 N. C., 351, 162 S. E., 764.

¶3 In the light of the confession made on the witness stand, a continuance would have availed the defendants naught. S. v. Keeter, 206 N. C., 482. Furthermore, this was a matter resting in the sound discretion of the trial court. S. v. Whitfield, 206 N. C., 696.

¶4 Nor was it error to refuse the defendants a separate trial on each count in the bill. C. S., 4622; S. v. Stephens, 170 N. C., 745, 87 S. E., 131. Indeed, the attempted robbery and murder having arisen out of the same conspiracy, a sej)arate trial on one of the counts in the bill might have precluded a subsequent prosecution on the other. S. v. Clemmons, ante, 276; S. v. Bell, supra.

¶5 The jury’s recommendation of mercy for Lester Green, evidently made in recognition of his hesitancy to enter the conspiracy, was properly disregarded as surplusage. S. v. Matthews, 191 N. C., 378, 131 S. E., 743; S. v. Hancock, 151 N. C., 699, 66 S. E., 137.

¶6 No vitiating error having been made to appear, the verdict and judgment will be upheld.

¶7 No error.

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