State v. . Morris

Stacy, O. J.

To seek to injure another or to take advantage of him while he is disarmed by sleep is to evince a heart devoid of social duties and a mind fatally bent on mischief. Such is the stuff of which house-thieves are made. Hence, burglary was regarded at the common law as one of the worst of crimes. 9 Am. Jur., 239. In its highest degree, it is still a capital offense in North Carolina. The purpose of the law was and is to protect the habitation of men, where they repose and sleep, from meditated harm. “A burglar (or the person that committeth burglary),” says Lord Coke, 3 Inst., 63,…