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North Carolina v. Rose12/5/1990
Defendant was indicted on 2 March 1987 for two counts of murder for the deaths of his cousin, Danny Ray Bateman, and Bateman's girlfriend, Jill Alexander, on 31 January 1987. The cases were joined and tried as capital cases. The jury returned a verdict of first degree murder for the death of Bateman and recommended a life sentence. The jury found defendant guilty of second degree
murder for the death of Ms. Alexander, and the trial court imposed a fifty-year sentence to commence at the expiration of the life sentence. Defendant appealed these convictions, and this Court awarded defendant a new trial for the murder of Bateman and ordered a new sentencing hearing for the murder of Ms. Alexander. State v. Rose, 323 N.C. 455, 373 S.E.2d 426 (1988) (Rose I).
At the new trial which proceeded in a non-capital fashion, defendant was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. After the new sentencing hearing for the second degree murder conviction, the trial court imposed a consecutive fifty-year sentence. Defendant appeals from both his conviction of first degree murder and the fifty-year sentence for the second degree murder conviction.
Defendant contends that during the trial on the first degree murder charge, the trial court erred in allowing the State's rebuttal witness, Dr. Bob Rollins, to testify that in his opinion defendant was capable of premeditating on the day of the murder. Defendant contends that admission of this testimony over his objection violates our decision in Rose I. We agree and grant defendant a new trial on the first degree murder charge.
Defendant further contends that in the sentencing hearing for the second degree murder conviction the trial court erred in finding as statutory aggravating factors (1) that defendant employed a hazardous instrument endangering the life of more than one person; and (2) that defendant had a prior conviction. We find no error in the sentencing hearing for the second degree murder conviction. Defendant raises other issues on appeal relating to the guilt phase of his trial for first degree murder, but since these issues are unlikely to arise at the new trial, we find it unnecessary to discuss them.
The facts of this case are set out in Rose I, and we need not repeat them at this time. Additional facts will be discussed in the opinion as needed.
During the course of the retrial on the first degree murder charge, defendant called Dr. Royal who testified that defendant neither knew right from wrong nor was capable of forming specific intent to commit this murder. The State called Dr. Bob Rollins to rebut Dr. Royal's testimony. Defendant objected to Dr. Rollins' testimony which included the following questions and answers:
Q. Have you an opinion satisfactory to yourself based upon your interviews and evaluation of the defendant and based upon the information which was furnished to you whether or not Mr. Rose was capable of premeditating on the 31st of January?
[Defendant's objection overruled]
A. I have an opinion.
Q. What is your opinion?
A. He was.
[Defendant's motion to strike denied]
In State v. Smith, 315 N.C. 76, 337 S.E.2d 833 (1985), this Court considered some of the limits of expert testimony at trial and stated:
The rule that an expert may not testify that . . . a particular legal conclusion or standard has or has not been met remains unchanged by the new Evidence Code, at least where the standard is a legal term of art which carries a specific legal
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