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North Carolina v. McKoy9/7/1988
358 S.E.2d at 33.
The murder of a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his official duties differs in kind and not merely in degree from other murders. When in the performance of his duties, a law enforcement officer is the representative of the public and a symbol of the rule of law. The murder of a law enforcement officer engaged in the performance of his duties in the truest sense strikes a blow at the entire public -- the body politic -- and is a direct attack upon the rule
of law which must prevail if our society as we know it is to survive.
State v. Hill, 311 N.C. 465, 488, 319 S.E.2d 163, 177 (1984) (Mitchell, J., dissenting).
Defendant argues that State v. Hill, 311 N.C. 465, 319 S.E.2d 163, where a majority of this Court found the death sentence disproportionate, is the case in the pool most comparable to this one. We disagree. The defendant in Hill shot and killed a police officer in a struggle that ensued when the officer tackled the defendant. A significant factor in this Court's holding that the death sentence was disproportionate was "the incredibly short amount of time involved." State v. Hill, 311 N.C. at 479, 319 S.E.2d at 172. See also State v. Abdullah, 309 N.C. 63, 306 S.E.2d 100 (1983), where an officer entered a store while a robbery was in progress, the defendant's response in shooting him was almost instantaneous, and the jury recommended a life sentence. Here, by contrast, the killing followed a considerable period during which law enforcement officers and a neighbor attempted to persuade defendant to stop the shooting, and during which defendant expressly said to the victim: "You leave or I'll kill you."
Further, unlike in the present case, there is no indication in Hill or Abdullah that the defendants in those cases had been convicted previously of a felony involving violence against the person. We thus conclude that those cases are not sufficiently comparable to the present case to suggest or require a holding that the death sentence here is disproportionate.
Rather, the more comparable case is State v. Hutchins, 303 N.C. 321, 279 S.E.2d 788 (1981). There, "the record clearly establishe a course of conduct on the part of the defendant which amount to a wanton disregard for the value of human life and for the enforcement of the law by duly appointed authorities." Id. at 357, 279 S.E.2d at 810. We concluded that under such circumstances the sentence of death was not disproportionate or excessive, considering both the crime and the defendant. Id. at 357-58, 279 S.E.2d at 810.
Here, as in Hutchins, on the day of the murder defendant engaged in a course of conduct that showed a wanton disregard for the value of human life. His episodic, random shooting -- despite
several warnings to stop it -- threatened all who inhabited, or ventured into, the neighborhood. His ultimate violent act, which followed his own warning to the victim to "leave or I'll kill you," struck at the enforcement of the law by duly appointed authorities.
Thus, as in Hutchins, we conclude that nothing about the crime renders defendant's sentence of death disproportionate or excessive.
As to the defendant, the jury found -- supported by competent, uncontroverted evidence -- that he previously had been convicted of a felony involving the use of violence to the person. N.C.G.S. § 15A-2000(e)(3)
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