Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

91 N.C. 564

State v. . Eliason

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided October 5, 1884

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1884-10-05

INDICTMENT for fornication and adultery tried at Fall Term, 1884, of Iredell Superior Court, before Gilmer, J. The case states that “the evidence was entirely circumstantial and no act of criminal intercourse was proven by direct testimony.” His Honor, among other things not objected to by the defendants, charged the jury “that this was an offence usually committed in secret, and for this reason perhaps.the law does not require the state to prove actual acts of illicit…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1884-10-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently April 1925

3 state decisions

1018841890190019101920decided

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 →

Ashe, J.

¶1 We are unable to see from the statement of the case, or from anything occurring upon the hearing of the case before us, what was the ground of the exception taken to the charge of the court.. It was the rule before The Code effected a change in the practice (§ 412-3), for the defendant to state his exceptions in writing, before the case was finally submitted by the judge’s charge to the jury. And the only change made by The Code is, that the exceptions need not be taken at the time or in writing, and may be taken at the hearing in this court. But even in that case, the defendant is not relieved from the necessity of making his exceptions and stating in them some error to his prejudice. Terry v. Railroad ante 236; and State v. Cowan, 7 Ired., 239, where it is held that a defendant, in his exceptions, must show some error to his prejudice, otherwise the court will not set aside the verdict of a jury.

¶2 The supreme court will not look into the testimony to ’ ascertain if the jury found a defendant guilty without sufficient testimony. A motion for a new trial on- this ground is addressed to the discretion of the judge below. State v. Gallimore, 7 Ired., 147.

¶3 In this case, the evidence offered.by the state was entirely *566 circumstantial, and the law laid down by His Honor in his charge to the jury was directly applicable to such a case.

¶4 It has been held that on the trial of an indictmént under the statute (former statute,) for fornication and adultery, “it is not necessary to show by direct proof the actual bedding and cohabiting : it is sufficient to show circumstances from which the jury may reasonably infer the guilt of the parties.” State v. Poteet, 8 Ired., 23.

¶5 ■ There is no error. Let this be certified to the superior court of Iredell county, that the case may be proceeded with to judgment.

¶6 No error. Affirmed.

/91/nc/564 · .json · Public domain