State v. Yoes

The crime of which these defendants were found guilty in the superior court is deemed by the law of this State to be unsurpassed by any other in its vicious nature or in its threat to a peaceful, well ordered society. The accumulated wisdom and experience of the people of North Carolina have caused them, in the Constitution of this State and through their representatives in the General Assembly, to declare this crime to be the equal in seriousness to cold-blooded, premeditated murder, and to provide by law that one found guilty of it shall be put to death unless the jury which so convicts him…