State v. Davis

MORRIS, Judge.

In his first assignment of error defendant maintains the trial judge violated G.S. 1-180 by asking witnesses certain questions concerning the incident and a later confrontation between the prosecuting witness, Herman Long, and defendant. Defendant asserts that by asking these questions, the trial judge took on the role of advocate in the trial, which was highly prejudicial to the defendant. We find defendant’s argument unpersuasive. A careful examination of the questions asked by the court indicates that they were entirely objective and innocuous. Clearly, the trial judge did…