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241 N.C. 178

84 S.E.2d 654

State v. Scott

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided November 24, 1954

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1954-11-24

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“the allegations in a bill of indictment must particularize the crime charged and be sufficiently explicit to protect the defendant against a subsequent prosecution for the same offense.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Cox

Relies on State v. Cochran · State v. . Thomas · State v. . Morgan

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1954-11-24

How this case has been cited

Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently November 1972

16 state decisions

90195419601970decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Barnhill, C. J.

¶1 The bill of indictment fails to meet the test set forth in S. v. Sumner, 232 N.C. 386, 61 S.E. 2d 84, and other decisions of like *179 import. Tbe allegations in a bill of indictment must particularize tbe crime charged and be sufficiently explicit to protect tbe defendant against a subsequent prosecution for tbe same offense. Tbis tbe bill of indictment appearing in tbis record fails to do. S. v. Morgan, 226 N.C. 414, 38 S.E. 2d 166; S. v. Cochran, 230 N.C. 523, 53 S.E. 2d 663.

¶2 While a motion to quash is tbe most appropriate method of raising tbe question whether tbe bill of indictment charges tbe commission of any criminal offense, motion in arrest of judgment may be used to tbe same end. S. v. Cochran, supra.

¶3 S. v. Raynor, 235 N.C. 184, 69 S.E. 2d 155, and S. v. Thorne, 238 N.C. 392, 78 S.E. 2d 140, are directly in point. What is said in tbe opinions in those cases is controlling here.

¶4 Tbe defendant is entitled to bis discharge. To that end tbe judgment entered in the court below is arrested.

¶5 Reversed.

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