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239 N.C. 117

79 S.E.2d 254

State v. Wooten

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided December 16, 1953

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1953-12-16

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The testimony for the State is ample to show that some person violated the statutes relating to the possession of intoxicating liquor. It leaves to mere conjecture, however, the all-important question whether the culprit was the defendant or somebody else.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Burton

Relies on State v. Palmer · State v. Webb · State v. McLamb

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1953-12-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently May 1983

6 state decisions

201953196019701980decided

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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*119 Ervin, J.

¶1 The only assignments of error requiring consideration are those based upon the disallowances of the motions of the defendant for compulsory nonsuits on both counts.

¶2 The testimony for the State is ample to show that some person violated the statutes relating to the possession of intoxicating liquor. It leaves to mere conjecture, however, the all-important question whether the culprit was the defendant or somebody else. Since the evidence does not indicate that the defendant had either the actiral or the constructive possession of the intoxicating liquor found by the officers, the prosecution should have been involuntarily nonsuited in the Superior Court. S. v. McLamb, 236 N.C. 287, 72 S.E. 2d 656; S. v. Webb, 233 N.C. 382, 64 S.E. 2d 268.

¶3 The convictions and sentences in the Superior Court are vacated and reversed, and the motions of the defendant for compulsory nonsuits on both counts are sustained on this appeal. Under G.S. 15-173, these rulings have the force and effect of verdicts of not guilty on both counts. S. v. Palmer, 230 N.C. 205, 52 S.E. 2d 908.

¶4 Beversed.

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