66 N.C. App. 600 - State v. Puckett’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 36 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Applying the reasoning in Lattimore to the “lying in wait” factor requires us to reach the same result as to that factor. In the context of an assault case, “lying in wait” is nothing more or less than taking the victim by surprise, an element of secret assault, a separate but joinable offense. We are aware of the results reached by other panels of this court and our supreme court in State v. Abee, 308 N.C. 379 , 302 S.E. 2d 230 (1983) and State v. Green, 62 N.C. App. 1 , 301 S.E. 2d 920 (1983), where evidence which tended to show additional criminal acts committed during the crime for which defendants were being sentenced was considered as factors in aggravation. In those cases, however, the statutory prohibition against use of joinable offenses was not considered or addressed. In light of Winnex and Lattimore , we must conclude that the use of evidence of an element of a joinable offense with which defendant has not been charged is even less valid than the use of evidence of the commission of joinable offense for which a defendant has been convicted, and that this factor was erroneously found.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 78 N.C. App. 285 - State v. McGuire

2. “Defendant first contends that the trial judge erred by finding as an aggravating factor that defendant had been “engaged in a pattern of violent conduct which indicates a serious danger to society.” Because defendant has no prior criminal record, it is clear that the trial judge relied upon evidence of events leading to the five kidnapping and rape convictions to prove that defendant had engaged in a “pattern of violent conduct.” A defendant’s prior convictions may be considered in aggravation except where the crimes are joinable with the offense for which the defendant is currently being sentenced. N.C. Gen. Stat. Sec. 15A-1340.4(a)(l)(o) (1981 Cum. Supp.). Since the five charges against defendant were joinable, the trial judge could not have properly considered defendant’s conviction of one of the offenses as an aggravating factor in any of the other four cases. It would frustrate the intent of the statute to permit a trial judge to consider the fact that a defendant “committed” a joinable of fense, when he could not consider that defendant had been convicted of that same joinable offense.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 78 N.C. App. 285 - State v. McGuire