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North Carolina v. McKoy9/7/1988
the jury by blending the issues of competency to stand trial and insanity.
Although potentially misleading, the argument did not misstate the law. It simply urged the jury to consider evidence of defendant's state of mind at the time of trial in passing upon his state of mind at the time of the shooting. The trial court gave clear and correct instructions on insanity. See State v. Evangelista, 319 N.C. at 161, 353 S.E.2d at 382. In light of the foregoing, we decline to find an abuse of discretion in the failure to sustain defendant's objection to the argument.
Defendant next contends that the trial court erred by sustaining the State's objection to a portion of his closing argument. Dr. Rollins had testified that defendant was legally insane at the time of the shooting and that he lacked the mental capacity to premeditate and deliberate the act. Addressing the relevance of Dr. Rollins' testimony, defense counsel argued:
And he said too that at that time, on that evening, December the 22nd, 1984, that he could not premeditatedly or deliberate to shooting the deputy. That's what he said. How is that significant? His Honor -- I believe he will charge you that in order for you to find the defendant guilty of first degree murder, that before you can do that, you've first got to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt [that] certain elements of the crime are met. Among those, one of the elements of first degree murder is that there was premeditation and deliberation, unlawful killing of a human being with premeditation and deliberation. Premeditation and deliberation. That thought went into it. That there was time to think, to reflect, to choose to do the thing.
Dr. Rollins with all of his years of experience and with all of the work that went into his examination of Dock McCoy says he could not premeditate and deliberate at that time.
You've got to find before you can convict this man of first degree murder not only could he but that he did, so, in effect, what you've got to find is that not only was Dr. Rollins wrong about it, but that he was wrong about it beyond a reasonable doubt.
The following then occurred:
Mr. Lowder: We Object to that.
Mr. Stokes: That's a fair comment.
Mr. Lowder: We ask the Judge to rule on that objection.
The Court: I'll have to Sustain that Objection.
Defendant contends that his argument properly stated the proposition that the State bore the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the premeditation and deliberation element of first degree murder. The State asserts that the argument implied that the State bore the burden of disproving the insanity defense, which is an inaccurate statement of our law. State v. Mize, 315 N.C. 285, 293-94, 337 S.E.2d 562, 567 (1985). We conclude that the argument is reasonably subject to either of these interpretations. Although counsel should be allowed wide latitude in arguing to the jury, the control of the exercise of this privilege ordinarily lies in the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. Robbins, 319 N.C. 465, 505, 356 S.E.2d 279, 303, cert. denied, U.S. , 98 L. Ed. 2d 226 (1987). Because the jury could have interpreted defendant's argument to misstate the law as applied to the facts, we find no abuse of discretion in the sustaining of the objection.
Further, the charge correctly and unambiguously emphasized the State's burden of proving premeditation and deliberation beyond a reasonable doubt. See State v. Mize, 315 N.C
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