{
  "id": 8554080,
  "name": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. GEORGE THOMAS WARD",
  "name_abbreviation": "State v. Ward",
  "decision_date": "1980-01-08",
  "docket_number": "No. 7926SC660",
  "first_page": "513",
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      "year": 1977,
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T22:44:31.887789+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Judges Vaughn and Webb concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. GEORGE THOMAS WARD"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "MARTIN (Harry C.), Judge.\nDefendant excepted to the following portion of the court\u2019s charge on insanity: \u201cHe [the defendant] must prove the defendant\u2019s insanity to you to your reasonable satisfaction.\u201d (Emphasis added.)\nEarlier in the charge the court defined reasonable doubt:\nNow, members of the jury, a reasonable doubt is a doubt based on reason and common sense arising out of some or all of the evidence that has been presented, or lack or insufficiency of the evidence, as the case may be. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is proof that fully satisfies or entirely convinces you of the defendant\u2019s guilt.\nIn applying the law to the evidence with respect to insanity, the court again instructed the jury that the standard of proof required by the defendant was to the \u201creasonable satisfaction\u201d of the jury.\nLater in the charge, the court instructed: \u201cHowever, he [the defendant] need not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was insane, but only to your reasonable satisfaction.\u201d\nIn North Carolina insanity is an affirmative defense which must be proved to the satisfaction of the jury by every defendant who relies upon it. State v. Caldwell, 293 N.C. 336, 237 S.E. 2d 742 (1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1075 (1978). The standard of proof required is to the satisfaction of the jury. Id. A proper instruction on the burden of proof of insanity follows:\nSince soundness of mind is the natural and normal condition of men, everyone is presumed to be sane until the contrary is made to appear. This presumption of sanity applies to persons charged with crime, but it is rebuttable. [Citations omitted.] These considerations give rise to the firmly established rule that the burden of proof upon a plea of insanity in a criminal case rests upon the accused who sets it up. But he is not obliged to establish such plea beyond a reasonable doubt. He is merely required to prove his insanity to the satisfaction of the jury.\nState v. Swink, 229 N.C. 123, 125, 47 S.E. 2d 852, 853 (1948). See also N.C.P.I. Crim. 304.10 (1977).\nBy charging the jury that defendant had the burden to prove his insanity to the \u201creasonable satisfaction\u201d of the jury, the court imposed upon the defendant a higher degree of proof than that required by law. State v. Swink, supra.\nThis prejudicial error was further compounded by the definition of \u201creasonable doubt\u201d given the jury, opening the probability that the jury applied this definition to \u201creasonable satisfaction\u201d in its deliberations.\nFor this error in the charge, there must be a new trial. Other assignments of error are made in the record on appeal, but as they may not occur in a retrial of the case, we refrain from discussing them.\nNew trial.\nJudges Vaughn and Webb concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "MARTIN (Harry C.), Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Attorney General Edmisten, by Special Deputy Attorney General W. A. Raney, Jr., for the State.",
      "Mamite Shuford for defendant appellant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA v. GEORGE THOMAS WARD\nNo. 7926SC660\n(Filed 8 January 1980)\nCriminal Law \u00a7 112.6\u2014 defense of insanity \u2014 instruction on burden of proof \u2014 \u201creasonable satisfaction\u201d of jury\nThe trial court erred in instructing the jury that defendant had the burden of proving his defense of insanity to the \u201creasonable satisfaction\u201d of the jury, since he was merely required to prove his insanity to the satisfaction of the jury.\nAPPEAL by defendant from Friday, Judge. Judgment entered 23 February 1979 in Superior Court, MECKLENBURG County. Heard in the Court of Appeals 6 December 1979.\nDefendant was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon upon a law enforcement officer while the officer was performing a duty of his office. These offenses arose when the victim, D. A. Mills, a state highway patrolman, stopped defendant for reckless driving. The evidence tended to show defendant made an unprovoked assault on Trooper Mills, seized his four-cell flashlight and beat him to the ground by hitting him on the head with it. Defendant attempted to get the officer\u2019s pistol and in the ensuing struggle, defendant was shot twice. Both defendant and Officer Mills required medical treatment. Defendant introduced evidence tending to show that he was insane at the time, the medical expert witnesses concluding that he had a mental condition called paranoid schizophrenia and chronic undifferentiated schizophrenia. From judgment of imprisonment, defendant appeals.\nAttorney General Edmisten, by Special Deputy Attorney General W. A. Raney, Jr., for the State.\nMamite Shuford for defendant appellant."
  },
  "file_name": "0513-01",
  "first_page_order": 541,
  "last_page_order": 544
}