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243 N.C. 164

90 S.E.2d 237

State v. Isom

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided November 23, 1955

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1955-11-23

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Ordinarily, intoxication of an accused person does not render inadmissible his confession of facts tending to incriminate him. But the extent of his intoxication when the confession was made is relevant; and the weight, if any, to be given a confession under the circumstances disclosed is exclusively for determination by the jury. 20 Am. Jur., Evidence, sec. 525; 22 C.J.S., Criminal Law, sec. 828; Annotation: 74 A.L.R. 1102 et seq., and supplemental decisions. See, S. v. Bryan, 74 N.C. 351 .””

quoted by 1 later decision, including State v. Painter

Relies on State v. . Bryan

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1955-11-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently September 2011

21 state decisions

1301955196019701980199020002010decided

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 →

Bobbitt, J.

¶1 The evidence, considered in the light most favorable to the State, was sufficient to survive defendant’s motion for nonsuit. Hence, assignment of error directed to the court’s ruling in this respect cannot be sustained.

¶2 Assignment of error #7 must be sustained, and a new trial granted, notwithstanding it seems improbable that the record reflects correctly *166 the instructions given by the presiding judge. But, as shown in the record, the instruction was not responsive to the jury’s inquiry and was highly prejudicial. Too, the jury’s inquiry remained unanswered.

¶3 The obvious purpose of the cross-examination was to emphasize rather than to minimize the extent of defendant’s intoxication. The inference is permissible that defendant did not testify because, on account of extreme intoxication, he had no recollection of any conversation with the officers. In short, the defense seems to have been based on the contention that no weight should be given a statement attributed to defendant made under the circumstances disclosed. The testimony, quoted above, afforded a factual basis for such contention.

¶4 Ordinarily, intoxication of an accused person does not render inadmissible his confession of facts tending to incriminate him. But the extent of his intoxication when the confession was made is relevant; and the weight, if any, to be given a confession under the circumstances disclosed is exclusively for determination by the jury. 20 Am. Jur., Evidence sec. 526; 22 C.J.S., Criminal Law sec. 828; Annotation: 74 A.L.R. 1102 et seq., and supplemental decisions. See, S. v. Bryan, 74 N.C. 351. It would seem that the jury was entitled to an instruction consonant with this generally accepted rule.

¶5 New trial.

HiggiNS, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
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