State v. Stewart

HUSKINS, Justice.

Defendant sought to elicit testimony that the two victims were operating an illegal liquor business and possibly a house of prostitution. Exclusion of such evidence constitutes defendant’s first assignment of error.

It is generally recognized that in a prosecution for homicide where defendant pleads self-defense, evidence that the deceased was “a violent and dangerous fighting man” is admissible if such propensity was known to defendant or if the evidence in the case is wholly circumstantial. State v. Morgan, 245 N.C. 215, 95 S.E. 2d 507 (1956). See also 1 Stansbury’s North…