{
  "id": 8652236,
  "name": "THE STATE v. ELIZABETH YOUNG",
  "name_abbreviation": "State v. Young",
  "decision_date": "1892-09",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "715",
  "last_page": "718",
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      "cite": "111 N.C. 715"
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  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
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      "cite": "61 Ga., 401",
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    {
      "cite": "90 N. C., 355",
      "category": "reporters:state",
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    {
      "cite": "107 N. C., 463",
      "category": "reporters:state",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T18:01:29.703665+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "THE STATE v. ELIZABETH YOUNG."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Burwell, J.:\nThe prisoner\u2019s counsel, in apt time, requested his Honor to put his \u201centire charge\u201d in writing, and pursuant to this request the charge in chief was written out and read to the jury and they withdrew. The \u201ccase on appeal,,r which we must accept as an exact account of the proceedings on trial, states that after the jury had been out for sometime, they \u201creturned into Court and asked for further instruction as to the difference between manslaughter and murder, and his Honor proceeded to comply with their request, but failed to reduce his charge to the jury to writing, as he had \u25a0been requested to do, to which the defendant excepted.\u201d\nIn Drake v. Connelly, 107 N. C., 463, it was decided that the refusal to put the charge in writing and read it to the jury, if the request that this should be done was made in apt time, entitled a party in a civil suit to a new trial, for the reason that such refusal would be plainly a violation of The Code, \u00a7 414.\nIf this is true in a civil suit, much more is it true in a \u2022criminal action where life and liberty are involved. The question, then, is did his Honor fail or refuse to comply with this request.\nWe think a reasonable construction of this section of The Code requires that we should hold that a request that his Honor would reduce \u201c his entire charge\u201d to writing proffered to him at the close of the evidence, as was done in this case, was notice to him that the prisoner\u2019s counsel desired that all that he purposed saying to the jury on the law as applicable \u25a0to the facts, both his original charge and any further instruction he might feel called upon to give the jury, should be written out and read to them. We do not think it was incumbent on the. counsel to repeat his request when the jury came back into Court and asked for further instructions. He had reason to suppose, as we think, that if his Honor thought that the charge he had read to the jury covered the matter about which they seemed in doubt, he would content \u2022himself with re-reading that portion of his written charge which was applicable. And we think counsel was justified in presuming that if the request for additional instructions made him conclude that the charge which he had made was defective, or could be amplified so as the better to aid the jury, his Honor would make written amendments, so that then, if counsel thought best, the whole charge might be given to the jury, as provided in chapter 137, Laws of 1885-(Clark\u2019s Code, page 390).\nThe case made out by the prisoner\u2019s counsel, and duly served on the representative of the State in this prosecution,, and not excepted to, states that the prisoner\u2019s counsel entered an exception when this oral supplemental charge was so given. Whatever may be the facts, we must consider the-case as it is presented to us in the record, and are not at liberty to assume that no such exception was then made, because we-may feel sure that the learned Judge would certainly have-put his supplemental instruction in writing if his attention had been called to the matter by an exception entered at the-time.\nWe find that this view of the matter is sustained by the authorities. Mr. Thompson, in his work on Trials, sections 2375, 2376 and 2377, says: \u201cStatutes exist in several of the-States requiring the Judge to deliver his instructions to the jury in writing. These statutes are mandatory, and where they exist the giving of an oral instruction is error, for which a judgment will be reversed. They mean that the whole charge must be in writing, and that it should be delivered to the-jury literally as it is written. * * * In short, all the cases-agree that statutes of this kind, in criminal cases, where the accused is not presumed to waive any of his legal rights,, must be strictly complied with. The Judge must, both in civil and criminal cases, deliver his charge to the jury as it has been written, and not write it out afterwards as he delivered it. Under such a statute it is not allowable for the-Judge to give the chief instructions in waiting, and then, to add orally supplementary instructions asked for by the parties. Nor may he give written instructions to the jury and then explain or modify them orally. In like manner, under a statute requiring the Judge to charge the jury in writing, \u201cif required by either party,\u201d it is error, where counsel have properly signified their desire that the charge should be in writing, for the Judge to give a verbal charge, or to give a written charge, accompanied with verbal explanations or modifications. The charge, and every modification of it, must' be in writing if required.\u201d\nAnd in Currie v. Clark, 90 N. C., 355, it is said \u201c tha.t what he (the Judge) may tell the jury in matters of l^w for their information and guidance must be written and read, so he is not permitted to add to, take from, modify or explain what he delivered as his charge, for this'would be to change, perhaps, the meaning which would otherwise be ascribed to the writing, and produce the very mischief intended to be remedied.\u201d\nIn Wheatley v. West, 61 Ga., 401, it is said of the provisions \u25a0of the statute of that State, which are similar to ours, that \u201c they entitle the counsel to have the written word instead of \u25a0oral tradition. They provide for preserving and handing \u25a0down the word as a sure and enduring memorial of what was actually delivered.\u201d\nWe think the prisoner is entitled to a new trial, and it is so ordered. New Trial.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Burwell, J.:"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "The Attorney General, for -the State.",
      "Mr. R. IT. Battle, for defendant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "THE STATE v. ELIZABETH YOUNG.\nCharge in Writing.\nAt the request of counsel, made in apt time, the Court must put its entire charge to the jury in writing, and it is error to charge them orally upon any point when they return into Court for instruction.\nThis was an indictment for homicide, tried at the Fall Term, 1892, of Union Superior Court, before Graves, J.\nThere was a verdict of guilty, and defendant appealed upon the grounds set out in the opinion.\nThe Attorney General, for -the State.\nMr. R. IT. Battle, for defendant."
  },
  "file_name": "0715-01",
  "first_page_order": 747,
  "last_page_order": 750
}